Thread by @timkmak

Depite originally saying no casualties, now U.S. officials say nearly one dozen American troops were wounded in Iran’s Jan. 8 missile attack on Iraq’s al-Asad air base. 

defenseone.com/threats/2020/0…

.@DefenseBaron piece raises interesting medical questions. Army uses MACE: Military Acute Concussion Evalution. Anyone w/in 50m of blast/exposed to multiple blasts would have been checked asap after missile strikes. They should have known pretty quickly there were casualties/TBIs

The Army in years past has been accused of not taking traumatic brain injuries seriously in the first years post 9/11.

Now Army medics are taught to evaluate for TBI whenever there are blasts up to 50m away. Has become a real priority in tactical medicine.

Army medics immediately search for red flags that suggest traumatic brain injury, do not wait for time to pass before checking

Red flags incl loss of consciousness, double vision, vomiting, seizures, severe/worsening headache, tingling/weak extremities

Pentagon statement:

"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack... several were treated for concussion symptoms... As a standard procedure, all personnel
in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury..."

Pentagon statement cont.

"... In the days following the attack, out of an abundance of caution, some service members were transported from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, others were sent to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, for follow-on screening."