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N7GCW > VETS 21.03.05 20:13l 153 Lines 5841 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Rise in non-combat ailments.
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Rise in non-combat ailments
Date: Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:34 am
Subject: With more older troops on battlefield, Army sees rise in
noncombat ailments
Russ Rizzo, Stars and Stripes
Posted 2005-03-13 17:47:00.0
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27713
The 47-year-old high school history teacher from outside Hershey, Pa.,
has served 21 years in a variety of roles as an active-duty and Reserve
soldier.
Before deploying with his transportation brigade in January, Wolfe had
no major medical problems and worked full-time behind a desk.
But once he arrived at Camp Spearhead in Kuwait, Wolfe soon found his
body was not ready for the rigors of deployment: the long shifts lifting
cargo and climbing stairs; the stress of a daily commute on roads
insurgents were known to attack; the lack of sleep from living with
others in a tent.
Within a month, Wolfe's body sent him a warning. A nagging pinch
developed near his heart, and he found himself dizzy and out of breath -
signs of possible heart trouble he feared could lead to an attack if
ignored.
"You can't work 14- to 16-hour shifts when you're 47 years old when you
haven't been in that kind of environment and expect to be fine," Wolfe
said recently from a bed at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in
Germany.
To doctors at Landstuhl, Wolfe represents a new reality for the U.S.
military. As reservists and National Guardsmen are called to duty in
unprecedented numbers, they are bringing new medical challenges with
them.
Part-time soldiers now make up about 40 percent of the 150,000 troops in
Iraq, a Pentagon spokesman said. Overall, more than 184,000 reservists
in all services are deployed worldwide, according to the Army National
Guard Web site.
And because these troops tend to be older, military doctors find
themselves dealing more with illnesses and injuries common in older
patients.
The average age of reservists in all services is 33, according to the
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. A
quarter of all reservists are over age 40.
At Landstuhl, where most soldiers injured downrange go for medical
treatment, more troops arrive with noncombat injuries than fighting
wounds. Eight out of 10 soldiers airlifted from battle zones since the
beginning of the war in Iraq were treated for noncombat injuries,
according to the reserve affairs office.
They suffer from diseases such heart problems, joint pain or noncombat
injuries such as fractures suffered during training.
Atop the list of ailments is chest pain, followed by back pain and
hernias.
For Dr. (Col.) Randolph Modlin, chief of cardiology at Landstuhl, the
figures are easy to explain.
"We've never gone to war with guys as old as this before," he said.
In 2004 alone, Landstuhl physicians treated 559 soldiers who suffered
from heart disease or experienced chest pain downrange, according to
hospital statistics. That's an average of almost 11 heart patients a
week.
By comparison, the hospital treated an average of 24 patients a week for
all types of war wounds combined last year, according to hospital
statistics.
While most heart patients are over age 40, like Wolfe, Modlin said
doctors have seen clogged arteries in reservists in their 30s.
"It's just amazing how much coronary disease we've seen," said Dr.
(Maj.) Michael Huber, a cardiologist at Landstuhl.
Just last month, doctors found a 95 percent blockage in an artery of
37-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Kris Barrett, a National Guardsman from
Michigan. They later discovered Barrett came to war with another artery
partially clogged that he knew nothing about.
While guarding Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Barrett felt a pain in his
chest and found himself out of breath while walking.
His first reaction: "I thought I needed to work out more," Barrett said
from a bed at Landstuhl before flying to Walter Reed Army Medical Center
in Washington, D.C., for heart surgery.
Like Barrett, some patients go to war with heart trouble they do not
discover until they push their bodies carrying heavy flak jackets in the
desert heat.
For others, heart disease develops in combat because of habits common to
the battlefield, including stress, poor diet and smoking, doctors said.
"An average 40-year-old there puts on 40 pounds of gear in that heat and
lets people shoot at him - that's a recipe for heart failure," Modlin
said.
Back pain is the second most common noncombat injury Landstuhl doctors
see. Like heart patients, back patients tend to be older, because bones
and joints naturally deteriorate over time, doctors said.
"That low-back twinge a reservist felt at home suddenly becomes a
war-stopper," said Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of deployment
health support in the reserve affairs office.
Hernias are the third most common noncombat injury seen at Landstuhl.
Most of these patients are reservists and National Guardsmen because of
their older ages, said Dr. (Col.) Tyler Putnam, a general surgeon who
treats hernias.
The Army and military doctors are doing a variety of things to address
illnesses in older troops, such as adding new surgical specialties and
beefing up physical training for reservists. The Army plans to add a
program to better monitor the health of its reservists, Kilpatrick said.
That may include requiring certain older reservists to take an
electrocardiogram, or EKG, every year.
An EKG test likely would have shown Barrett's early heart trouble,
preventing him from going to Baghdad in the first place.
But Wolfe's diagnosis was different. After days of evaluations at
Landstuhl, doctors released the reservist back to Kuwait. His heart
showed no problems.
"I guess it was just the stress," Wolfe said.
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