Ryan Larkin was a Navy SEAL who was convinced that years of exposure to blasts from explosives had damaged his brain, despite doctors finding nothing wrong.
He committed suicide in 2017 and donated his brain to science to prove his suspicions. A postmortem study found unique scarring patterns in his brain linked to repetitive blast exposure from his work teaching SEALs to breach buildings.
Similarly, Robert Card, an Army reservist who carried out a deadly mass shooting in Maine in 2022, was found to have “significant degeneration” and inflammation in his brain white matter in a postmortem study. He had been exposed to thousands of low-level blasts working as a hand grenade instructor.
Experts say current medical technology is limited and cannot reliably detect most blast-related brain injuries in living people. Logging exposure histories is important but not consistently done.
Advocates argue more needs to be done to understand effects of low-level blasts, set safe exposure limits, track exposed personnel, and improve diagnosis and treatment of blast-related brain injuries in veterans and service members.
Source: nbcnews
