If you must cry, Moms, please do it in the hallway.

[Career Prole]

The first three lines of this Arizona Star article, Brain injury means he'll 'never be the same' shook me and shook me hard...

RIO RICO - There's a sound Maria Castillo can't get out of her mind since her son was nearly killed in Iraq.

It's the awful sound of mothers weeping for their maimed sons and daughters in the corridors of Walter Reed Army Hospital.

"The nurses tell you not to cry in front of the patients, so the mothers go out in the hall," said Castillo, a reservations agent at American Airlines in Tucson...

Please come soon, November. Please. :cry:

[pocket]

1. does it sound any worse than the wailing of Iraqi moms

who's kids have been dragged of to aa american rape cell in Abu Graibgh?

[Pirate Smile]

2. How about not dismissing the pain of any of the mothers?

[Nikki Stone 1]

4. True enough. But there's a reason they say "war is hell"

Because it is.

Parents put their whole lives into children and in less than a second, it can all be taken away.

[MrSlayer]

5. I think you'd have to consider them the same.

Neither the Iraqi or American mothers should be going through this agony. It's horrible all around.

[stop the bleeding]

15. yep n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. It's the same sorrow.

Everyone is being exploited to serve All Mighty Bush and Prime Wizard Cheney.

[Cleita]

3. These are the stories we should be spreading. The personal

agony of the individuals who have been caught in the malfaesance of Bush's war mongering. Our media and elected officials should be putting these stories out in front on a daily basis.

[mom cat]

18. I agree. We need to focus on the human toll on both sides. It is

helpful to follow up on the lies, but the core of the issue is that thousands upon thousands of people are dying or are suffering for the rest of their lives.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Brain injuries are one of the worst

Many times the patient with TBI looks just fine as he walks down the street, but the truth is much more sinister.
We saw Vietnam vets in wheelchairs legless and armless sitting on street corners, and while many pretended not to see, they did.
And in our mind's eye, we equate Vietnam Vets with mental pictures like Captain Dan from Forest Gump.
The TBI from this war however, will be harder to visualize.
In 10 years we will just have an onslaught of "crazy guys on the corners" without any thought of how they got that way.
Very very sad.:cry:

[FuzzySlippers]

7. One mom who's not crying:

[Horse with no Name]

8. Waste your beautiful mind on this Babs

You raised a mass murderer. Fuck you.

[Career Prole]

9. I thought of that bitch as I was reading the article.

"The Anti-Mother".

[Kurovski]

10. K&R (nt)

[FreedomAngel82]

11. How sad

Why can't they? :shrug: :( If anyone deserves to it's their mothers, wives, girlfriends, siblings etc. :(

[Tulum_Moon]

13. The american Mothers weep in the hallways of hospitals

The Iraqi Mothers weep in piles of rubble and sand and burned out buildings.
Yet the pain is the same.
How will any feel in 10 years from now?
Who will be proud their sons died in honor. Who will know their children were murdered?

[Horse with no Name]

14. When you have someone with head injuries

It is really for their own good that they not be upset. It increases their intracranial pressure which can worsen the situation.
For the same reason, you keep the rooms darkened and the televisions and radios off.
Reduce all stimulus. Even their mom crying.:(

[arikara]

16. Sounds odd to me

one of my family members was in a coma and all kinds of stimulation and activity helped to bring her out of it. I shed tears in front of her, never thought otherwise of it. I remember the nurse handing me the kleenexes instead of sending me into the hall. She made nearly a full recovery too, against all predictions.

Other than short time after they are injured and the brain can still be swelling I honestly can't see avoiding stimulation. Obviously, you don't want someone wailing and flailing around the room, but a few loving tears aren't going to hurt the person. Nor is talking to them and reading to them and playing beautiful music.

As for TV, she had been looking forward to the Grey Cup for weeks before the event. We brought a TV in to her room for the game and she sat there intently watching it, and when the game was over, she actually said the first words that she'd said since the accident.

There are different stages to a coma. They aren't always laying there in a sleep like state, although she did that for about a week. When her eyes opened, she screamed and lashed out for about a week. She could actually write a message before she could speak, not that it always made sense. Certain things held her interest, such as that game, and I think these things helped to put her back in touch with who she was.

[Horse with no Name]

17. What do I know?

I just worked as a critical care nurse in a neuro ICU?:shrug:
We allowed reading, talking, soothing music.
BUT we didn't allow anything loud or bright flashing lights (can cause seizure activity) and definitely didn't want to upset the patients by having relatives sobbing at their bedsides.

[arikara]

24. I didn't mean in any way to offend

I was speaking of my own experience. Although it happened many years ago, it still feels like yesterday.

Peace to you.

[Katherine Brengle]

19. It is easy to forget our wounded troops, we worry so much about those

who are no longer with us... But there are many thousands of men and women who have been injured in this war, and in others before it, who are never the same due to injuries they have sustained in service to their country...

All, alive or dead, injured or seemingly fine and healthy, deserve our support and our empathy, as do their loved ones.

[Katherine Brengle]

20. It is easy to forget our wounded troops, we worry so much about those

who are no longer with us... But there are many thousands of men and women who have been injured in this war, and in others before it, who are never the same due to injuries they have sustained in service to their country...

All, alive or dead, injured or seemingly fine and healthy, deserve our support and our empathy, as do their loved ones.

[BlueIris]

21. Kick.

[Hekate]

22. For college money. Tell me again how this is an all-volunteer military...

...and tell me again why The Twins aren't over there in uniform, risking themselves being maimed for this "noble cause." :cry:

At times I've read comments both right and left (some even on DU) blaming our troops for being so stupid as to sign up for military service. "They volunteered! How can they complain?" But as long as we underfund colleges and ship jobs overseas we'll have what amounts to an economic draft in this country.

The weeping of mothers for their dead and maimed children is a universal tongue. Damn the Masters of War. Damn them to Hell.

I have to go away for awhile until I stop crying.

Hekate
:cry:

[Career Prole]

23. Yes, for college money. That poor woman has to live with suggesting it.

All she wanted was a life for him that was better than hers...better than what she could afford to give him.
I wish her and her boy peace...