U.S. Coast Guard Vows Action on Small-Boat Brain Injuries After 1 NYT Report

Q: How many Coast Guard rescue crews may have been misdiagnosed after wave pounding mimicked stress or PTSD symptoms?

There is no confirmed total, but the reporting suggests the number could be substantial among the Coast Guard’s small-boat rescue community, especially surfmen. The New York Times investigation found that many crew members with headaches, memory lapses, anxiety, mood swings and cognitive problems were treated as if they were suffering from stress reactions or PTSD and were never evaluated for physical brain injury. The Coast Guard, according to the report, has not systematically tracked these repetitive wave-impact injuries, so no official count of possible misdiagnoses has been published. The clearest numerical indicator in the available reporting comes from a survey conducted by Kayleigh Bonner, the daughter of a deceased surfman, using a Navy survey template. Seventy-seven active and retired surfmen responded, and the responses showed a broad pattern of symptoms consistent with possible brain injury, while few had been formally diagnosed with head injury by the Coast Guard. That does not prove all 77 were misdiagnosed, but it suggests that dozens in that sample may have gone unrecognized or been labeled with stress-related conditions instead of being assessed for neurological injury. So the best evidence-based answer is that an unknown but potentially large number of Coast Guard rescue crews may have been misdiagnosed, with the 77-respondent surfmen survey providing the strongest public sign that the problem could involve dozens of people at minimum.

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 31

Admiral Kevin Lunday told the entire Coast Guard on Thursday that the service will take “decisive action” to prevent, recognize and treat brain injuries among small-boat crews.
Rough seas are driving the problem: repeated wave impacts can expose rescue crews to thousands of jolts that create whiplash-like brain trauma even without a direct head strike or obvious concussion.
Years of exposure have left some crew members with headaches, memory lapses, cognitive problems, anxiety and mood swings, while many were diagnosed with PTSD without being assessed for physical brain injury.
The force-wide email came hours after a New York Times report on elite surfmen described how the injuries often went unrecognized and traced one family’s search for answers after a veteran crewman died by suicide.