Video from the NBC Nightly News “Making a Difference” segment:

Tiana Tozer has been using a wheelchair since the age of 20, when she was injured by a drunk driver. Now she’s spending a year in Iraq with the aid organization Mercy Corps. She’s campaigning to give a voice to the two million Iraqis who have disabilities, many of them injured in the wars that have been fought there.

Quotes from Tiana Tozer:

• Having a disability is not the worst thing that can happen to you. But some people think it’s worse than death. And it’s not.
• It doesn’t matter whether they’re Sunni or Shia or Kurdish. That’s the most exciting thing. These people can be an example for the rest of Iraqi society on how to work together.
• You’re my people, and we all have to stick together to make the world a better place.

Writing in the New York Times Magazine, David Bergner profiles an Iraq veteran who cannot speak and is barely able to move, the result of a traumatic brain injury that occurred when a mine exploded under his Humvee. Shurvon Phillip (left, with his mother, Gail) is one of an estimated 900 returning veterans with TBI, one of the war’s signature wounds.

Supported by his mother, as well as a pioneering neurologist and a Cleveland lawyer who took up the fight for his care, Phillip has made great progress in the three years since doctors thought him incapable of purposeful movement. Now, his mother says, this man who had been considered “the brains of the family” wants to earn a master’s degree.

The article’s conclusion:

… [When I heard that Phillip could correctly answer multiple-choice comprehension questions] I thought that there seemed little reason that Shurvon couldn’t someday earn a master’s degree. But at other moments the reasons appeared too immense ever to be overcome; the notion of college, let alone graduate school, seemed merely a soothing fantasy. And sometimes impossible to overcome, too, was the idea that Shurvon’s life might not be worth living; that I, in his place, would rather stop breathing, cease thinking, that I would prefer to die.

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From the New York Times:

Dr. Lee Sang-mook is a professor at Seol National University in South Korea, and a recent day found him delivering a lecture on marine geophysics. He is also paralyzed from the neck down, the result of an auto accident two years ago.

Dr. Lee’s decision to go on teaching from a wheelchair after his accident has made him a role model in South Korea, where people with disabilities still face prejudices and are expected to withdraw from active life.

In the South Korean news media he is frequently compared to another quadriplegic scientist, the British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Dr. Lee modestly discourages such talk, saying the similarities are superficial.

Despite rapid economic and cultural development, South Korea still lacks social awareness of its disabled citizens and the facilities to aid them. Families with disabled members often keep them at home, sometimes hidden away, ashamed of their existence and afraid of discrimination. In fact, Dr. Lee’s decision to continue teaching at the nation’s most prestigious university has put him at odds with his wife and parents, who would prefer that he concentrate on restoring some motion to his limbs.

From Joseph Shapiro of National Public Radio, another extended feature on wounded Army Sgt. Tim Ngo of Minnesota. Ngo almost died of a head wound in Iraq four years ago.

Like many injured soldiers, Ngo relied heavily on a dedicated family member to help him through the laborious rehabilitation process. His mother stuck by him as he learned again to walk and talk, and to cope with everything from short-term memory loss to unexpected bursts of anger.

Although Ngo has made great strides, his relationship with his mother is now badly frayed; they aren’t even talking to each other. He and his girlfriend (above) are moving to Texas. “I don’t know how to fix it,” says his mother, Hong Wyberg. “I don’t know how to change it except to let him go.”

Experts say it helps relieve boredom, encourages movement

From the Chicago Sun-Times

Experts are increasingly using the Wii video game in rehab therapy, helping people recovering from strokes, broken bones, surgery and even combat injury. They say it motivates people to work hard and reduces the tediousness of the task.

From USA Today:

Charitable group Segs4Vets is giving away Segway electric scooters to disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea is to give the veterans greater mobility. But Segways are not approved as a medical device, and the Department of Veterans affairs has yet to offer an opinion on their therapeutic value. Some question whether the Segways will slow recovery if recipients overuse the devices.

How one program uses golf to give soldiers confidence; a triple-amputee’s victory

From the Wall Street Journal, a feature on golf clinics that help wounded veterans regain their sense of identity and self-worth. The sport benefits amputees, as well as soldiers with traumatic brain injury.

The physical trauma for severely wounded combat veterans is often exceeded by the psychological complications. “Before their injuries, many of these soldiers were extremely strong, athletic individuals with highly trained skills. The impact on their sense of self-identity is profound,” says Barbara Romberg, a clinical psychologist in the Washington area …

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