Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

There has been a great deal of press attention to the problems at Walter Reed and the failure to deal with the mental health problems in U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but little of success of the military health system in keeping the wounded alive. Atul Gawanda, in his book Better, notes that ten percent of wounded soldiers in Iraq are dying of their wounds, compared with 24 percent in the Vietnam war. The improvement is due to extensive operations research that has better protection for the soldier in combat, and getting the wounded to a front line facility very, very fast. It also depends, obviously, on cadres of health professionals who are very competent, working very hard, and themselves in harms way. Those people have my admiration and my thanks. While it is not acceptable than any soldier who has been wounded doing his/her duty receives less than first class care and attention to any war related wound, injury or disability -- mental or physical -- we should not forget to honor the military medical teams for the outstanding work that the are doing under difficult circumstances.