Wounded Soldiers Have Increased Odds of Survival - WSJ.com: "The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, medical experts say, are still emerging. One legacy is new ways to control bleeding before soldiers lapse into comas or their vital organs shut down. Thanks to new clotting agents, blood products and advanced medical procedures performed closer to the battlefield, wounded American soldiers are now surviving at a greater rate than in any previous war fought by the U.S.
The rising survival rate, now touching 95% for those who live long enough to get medical treatment, is in turn introducing new problems caring for patients with serious and chronic injuries, including multiple amputations and brain damage. The cost of treating such lasting injuries will be borne by the U.S. medical system for decades to come.
On the medical front lines, however, military doctors often focus just on keeping wounded soldiers alive. In Afghanistan, troops are protected by new generations of armored vehicles, bulletproof vests and helmets that often keep them from getting killed outright in firefights. That leaves doctors and medics to face a dire range of war wounds"
