Army doctors see sharp rise in severe injuries from Afghanistan

[cory777]

Source: Guardian

The Ministry of Defence has nearly tripled the number of rehabilitation beds available for severely wounded soldiers from Afghanistan to accommodate a sharp rise in the number of soldiers who have lost one or more limbs in the conflict.

The military's Headley Court rehabilitation centre, near Epsom, Surrey, recently opened a second new 30-bed extension, expanding its total capacity to 96, up from 36 beds in 2007.

Staff numbers have also risen in line with the increase in severely injured soldiers who require long-term, specialist support, and the in-house prosthetics team has doubled in size over the past year in response to the surge in demand for new limbs.

More service personnel lost limbs in explosions in Afghanistan in the first nine months of this year than the total figure for 2009, according to MoD data released earlier this week. A total of 58 had undergone amputations as a result of injuries sustained in Afghanistan by the end of September, compared with 55 for 2009, according to Defence Analytical Services and Advice statistics. Military doctors are treating rising numbers of double and triple amputees.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/05/injuries-afghanistan-lost-limbs

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[democrank]

1. Awful news

[Lurks Often]

2. It is terrible, however

something to keep in mind that in prior wars many, if not most, of the injured soldiers would have died from these injuries. Advances in battlefield medical trauma treatment and advances in body armor technology are keeping more soldiers alive then ever before.