Closing brain injury center in Austin would be a mistake
If Veterans Affairs shuts down brain injury research project in Austin, it would be a setback for veterans with signature wound from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Without a clear explanation, Veterans Affairs bureaucrats are considering shutting down an Austin program to study brain injuries. In a letter that should be clear enough to even the most impervious of functionaries, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. R-Texas, calls the contemplated closure a mistake.
We not only agree but also call upon the VA to explain in detail why the action is contemplated in the first place.
Cornyn's letter, dated Thursday, was addressed to VA Secretary James Peake. The secretary got another letter on Friday from U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; Michael McCaul, R-Austin; Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio; and John Carter, R-Round Rock, urging that the center, initiated in 2006, remain operational.
Closing the program, Cornyn wrote, "would represent a squandered opportunity to better understand (traumatic brain injury) a signature wound of our nation's military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, and improve the lives of those who suffer from it."
The joint letter from the congressmen notes: "Without proper diagnosis and treatment, TBI can lead to increased risk of suicide, family problems, and often abuse and homelessness. Without question, these men and women need and deserve improved TBI diagnosis and treatment."
The Brain Imaging and Recovery Laboratory is a multimillion-dollar collaboration involving the University of Texas and the VA and was set up to investigate brain injuries. Beset with problems that prompted the agency's Office of Inspector General to issue a critical report, the center, housed at the University of Texas' J.J. Pickle Research Campus, has yet to deliver on its potential. The same can be said of the sluggish Veterans Affairs bureaucracy, but no right-thinking person would propose shutting the VA down.
The notion to close the center surfaced in a meeting with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, but a cogent explanation for why the center should be closed has yet to be disclosed.
There is a definite need for that kind of research, as Cornyn noted in his letter to Peake: "\u2026 an estimated 320,000 troops who have deployed to (Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001) — representing nearly one in five — have experienced a probable traumatic brain injury (TBI) during deployment, and the numbers continue to grow."
The research not only could benefit wounded veterans but anyone who suffered a brain injury.
The center has a legitimate purpose. If that purpose has been distorted or not properly executed, then by all means fix it. To shut the center down without proper justification would be, as the Texas lawmakers say, a colossal mistake.
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It would be morally wrong to shut down this project at time when the nation is facing the tremendous amount of TBI injuries returning home from Iraq and the exposures to IEDs and the brain trauma caused over the past 5 years, because the management did not like what this doctor did, because of their inept management, so hurt the injured soldiers by closing down one of the projects that can help them in retaliation, who gets hurt, DR Bovin or the soldiers or both, how about hurting the management instead.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Closing brain injury center in Austin would be a mistake
