Returning Combat Veterans Dealing with Injuries

As New Jersey honors its more than 350,000 veterans tomorrow, many of us are unaware of the wide range of injuries active duty soldiers are dealing with upon returning from combat. 

Dr. Joseph Tauro, a consulting surgeon for the Veteran Affairs New Jersey Health Care System in East Orange and Director of the Ocean County Sports Medicine in Toms River, has performed a thousand surgeries on service men and women with combat injuries.

"Active duty in a combat area is physically demanding," said. Dr. Tauro. Back injuries are common from lifting heavy things or sleeping out in a field on rocks.

"If you're near an explosion, if you get thrown, if you get concussion injuries, then the back injuries can be quite a bit more severe," he said.

Many veterans also are being treated for torn Rotator Cuffs and ACL knee injuries to more severe joint surface injuries that can result in permanent injuries, according to Dr. Tauro.

Dr. Tauro has treated veterans from World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam, to Present Day.

"One of the things that has changed is the mortality rate in the field is lower and veterans with more severe injuries are saved. Those soldiers have bigger problems that we have to solve," he pointed out.

"As the years have passed, we have more complex reconstructive problems, not because the injuries are worse, but because veterans can survive with worse injuries than used to be the case," added Tauro.