trauma

11.24.09

DARPA Wants Cryogenic Technology on the Battlefield to Freeze Traumatic Brain Injury in its Tracks

The Pentagon's mad science lab is trying to create a device that can cool traumatized brains and slow secondary damage from blasts

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 11.16.2009 at 1:29 pm 1 Comment

Blasts from improvised explosives and RPGs can cause traumatic brain injuries among soldiers, which can leave permanent damage. Sounds like a challenge for the Pentagon's mad science lab DARPA, which has issued a call for a brain freeze device that could stop the after-effects of brain trauma in its tracks, Wired's Danger Room reports.

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READ MORE ABOUT > blasts, darpa, explosions, explosive devices, freeze, ieds, injuries, mad science, soldiers, tbi, trauma, traumatic brain injury, warfighters

Shock to the System

Soldiers who manage to walk away from explosions in Iraq may actually be suffering terrible—yet invisible—brain trauma. Could blast waves be fueling a new breed of injury?

By Eric Hagerman Posted 08.22.2008 at 9:54 am 8 Comments

August 15, 2008— The first time Army Specialist Frederick Hussey “got blown up in Iraq,” as he says, was on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006. Hussey was five months into his yearlong deployment as an infantry medic when a cluster of anti-tank explosives jolted his Humvee off the road some 50 miles south of Baghdad. The blast filled the cabin with acrid black smoke, but Hussey was able to jerk the wheel back and steer the truck to safety. “Everybody ended up being OK with that one,” Hussey says. “You know—shook up and all, but there was no loss of life.

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READ MORE ABOUT > brain injury, ERIC HAGERMAN, iraq, september 2008, trauma, war