GIA 2008 Excellence Winner

The Robert G. Fenley Writing Award - General Staff Writing

Stanford University School of Medicine

Fog of War

Excerpt from article:

"You can't comunicate. You have no physical reactions. You have no feelings. It's as if you're duct-taped, blind-folded, and tied," says Brett Miller, now in a brain injury rehabilitation unit at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

This story was published in the Summer 2007 issue of the magazine, which was mailed out the week of June 4. It was part of the issue's themed section dealing with war's impact on medicine.

The Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System is home to several Stanford faculty members and residents, as well as being home to one of the VA's eight centers for treating traumatic head injuries. The experts there told us about the "silent epidemic" of closed-head injuries that often didn't surface until after soldiers returned home, and we wanted to tell that story. Our writer, Ruthann Richter, spent countless hours at the VA hospital, talking with patients and the health care personnel who treated them.

The audience for our magazine is largely medical school alumni (making up about half of our 15,500 mailing list), but we also send the magazine to thought-leaders in biomedicine, the media, and key government officials.

Read the full narrative (Word, 1 page)

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Contact: Ruthann Richter, richter1@stanford.edu

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