U.S. Combat Fatality Rate Lowest Ever --but severe injuries are up:-(

[rodeodance]

Also says that over 10,300 U.S. troops injured in Iraq.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49566-2004Dec8.html

U.S. Combat Fatality Rate Lowest Ever
Technology and Surgical Care at the Front Lines Credited With Saving Lives

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 9, 2004; Page A24


Ten percent of soldiers injured in Iraq have died from their war wounds, the lowest casualty fatality rate ever, thanks in large part to technological advances and the deployment of surgical SWAT teams at the front lines, an analysis to be published today has found.

But the remarkable lifesaving rate has come at the enormous cost of creating a generation of severely wounded young veterans and a severe shortage of military surgeons, wrote Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The war in Iraq has produced the "largest burden of casualties our military medical personnel have had to cope with since the Vietnam War," said Gawande's report in the New England Journal of Medicine. By contrast, 24 percent of soldiers wounded in the Vietnam War or the Persian Gulf War did not survive.

"It used to be our thinking that the number of deaths reflects the violence of the war," Gawande said in an interview. "Now, the number of deaths reflects how well surgical teams are doing in saving lives."

[eyesroll]

1. Is it feeling drafty in here?

Or at least, drafty in the hospital where doctors and nurses under 45 work?

[Benhurst]

2. The lucky extra 15% will spend the rest of their lives struggling

to get even minimal help from the U.S. Government. But not to worry, there's always a flag to wave, a lapel button to wear and the ever-so-quick crocodile tear of gratitude to be shed by The Leader.

[wtmusic]

3. bullshit statistic

and 100% of dead American soldiers died from their war wounds.

[Moderator]

4. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1056112