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> Much of Katie’s care is being paid for by the Department of Defense, because her youth and ballistic trauma make her a stand-in for wounded warriors. For the

> Much of Katie’s care is being paid for by the Department of Defense, because her youth and ballistic trauma make her a stand-in for wounded warriors. For the rest of her life, she’ll take powerful antirejection drugs with risks of their own, becoming a lifelong subject in the study of this still experimental surgery. Kudos to the DoD for doing this. The military historically has been the driver for advances in surgery. This will not only benefit Katie, but the knowledge gained from this will also benefit many wounded soldiers in the future.

maxxxxx 8y ago
There are a ton of pictures of WW1 soldiers who had similar injuries. This type of surgery is definitely very important for military.
- ansible 8y ago
  The Great War channel covered this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPtmFZqKC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPtmFZqKC0 Just like the article, it isn't an easy video to watch.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    When I was at German military we saw similar videos for our first aid training. The video opened my eyes. In my view this should be required viewing for everyone to make sure they understand what war really is. With all the cool smart bombs, jet fighters and night vision goggles it's being portrayed as way too clean and fun.
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      And with war-by-remotecontrol it gets ever closer to looking and feeling like a video game where you go home to your family after killing a bunch of people on the other side of the world.
      - maxxxxx 8y ago
        Killing still sounds too clean. People got burned badly, lost limbs or lost half their face.
jdoliner 8y ago
I think I remember reading that the DoD deserves credit for the entire field of plastic surgery, it was originally pioneered to help soldiers who had suffered disfigurement in combat. Only later did it become something for civilian augmentation.
- NeedMoreTea 8y ago
  Close - an Ally. It was Gilles at the Royal Army Medical Corps in WW1 who pioneered skin grafts and plastic surgery. He'd done thousands of facial reconstructions by war's end. He set up a plastic surgery clinic between the wars. A relative of his, McIndoe, became famous (the better known of the two today) for his work in WW2 for pioneering and inventing many treatments for burn victims. Burns had become a common injury for pilots and aircrew. He formed the Guinea Pig Club for patients and effectively pioneered rehabilitation. He convinced the locals to visit the hospital in Sussex regularly and befriend patients. They organised trips out to the town so they could feel "normal" again (that became so common locals no longer stared), allowing a bar in the hospital, regular clothes or uniforms not PJs and countless other touches. The hospital still specialises in burns and reconstruction. McIndoe ended up with honours from most of the Allied nations if I remember right. Edit: More detail
  - rhizome 8y ago
    Relevant story: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/anna-coleman-ladd-masks-1918/ https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/anna-coleman-ladd-masks-191...
  - skookumchuck 8y ago
    The Germans during WW2 had the best plastic surgery for burns.
    - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
      Do you have any citations or history books you'd recommend? That flies in the face of everything I've ever seen or read, and is not mentioned, even briefly, on Wikipedia as far as I can see. McIndoe gets extensive entries both for himself and under plastic surgery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#Development_of_modern_techniques https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#Development_of...
jonah 8y ago
Or, you know, we could just stop sending our young people out to get blown up... Kudos to the DoD for funding these experiments but they're solving a problem of their own creation...
- nhfoiwehf 8y ago
  > a problem of their own creation... The DoD didn't invent war. It doesn't declare war. It just fights wars. Who sends our young people to be blown up? Our elected leadership. So we all made this problem.
  - jonah 8y ago
    Fair enough. I think we need to market images of badly disfigured veterans as a tragedy instead of an honor.
    - throwaway987909 8y ago
      I hate the glamorization of the military. I don't understand how anyone would actually join. Sacrifice yourself mentally, and physically to fight political wars for the rich and powerful. No thank you. But the propaganda is soooo strong it preys on people who can't think for themselves.
      - allannienhuis 8y ago
        Just on the topic of why people sign up: I think many people join because they really think they're doing something good - defending those that need protection or help from the 'real' bad guys. Obviously that's not 100% what's really going on all the time but it has enough truth in it to be attractive. And I think it's true that some real good is done by (most?) military organisations - ie disaster relief, some major engineering projects, policing in areas without effective security, etc, so some people do get to live those ideals out, and pass along that part of the military culture. It's not _entirely_ propaganda, nor it is all shooting guns at people.
extralego 8y ago
Even better would be not losing her face to begin with. This was preventable. Am I the only one to notice the events that led up to this? 1. Young girl moves multiple times due to her parent’s jobs, causing for stress and anxiety. 2. Girl finds stability and passion when she is granted an encouraging educational experience/environment at a private school where her parents both found contract jobs. 3. Parents both lost their contract jobs on the same day. 4. As a result of her parents losing their jobs, she could no longer go the school, because her parents could not afford it. 5. Her boyfriend who went to that school cheated on her. 6. She shot herself in the face. Getting cheated on in high school happens. It’s a painful experience but it’s generally a pretty good time for it to happen, because (ideally) you’re in a secure place where you can experience pain without existential loss. Moving is rough, but not nearly as rough as having your family morph between social classes. This sort of thing is just evil for a child. Either up or down is just awful. Neither you or your peers have any context for what is happening. You’re entirely misunderstood and feel out of place. I will not have kids unless I can be reasonably certain they won’t have to experience this. In her case, her family was never even in the social class she acclimated to. This is one seriously dirty trick, especially for a child. Obviously her family was doing everything they could for her. This was just out of their control. To face those complex realities that define your entire world and have it thrown in your face by your boyfriend cheating on you with someone else, both of whom presumably had the security of surplus income supporting their education and social life, is really bad. But we forget how much worse this is for a child. Children in high school are smart. They understand a lot of stuff, even the difference between rich and poor. But they should only be expected to be able to make sense of so much at a time. The whole idea of this stage is to develop a stable self-identity in an environment encouraging of education and confidence. She lost both in the blink of an eye. And she had to face the reality that going to another school like the one where she had found passion and nourishment was all just short of not happening. This is just one of the reasons these games we play with education funding and classism are sick. This girl did not have to be in her situation. We love to talk about how competition motivates innovation, but it also motivates economic rollercoasters. Maybe adults can handle that, but children simply can’t. This is one disgusting way to live and kids all over America are riding this rollercoaster while their parents do everything in their mighty will to give them a stable healthy existence. But we’ve created an America where an honest living means a shitty school and an existence no more stable than a contract job. Nobody thinks about what this does to the kids. All they see is innovation.

maxxxxx 8y ago

There are a ton of pictures of WW1 soldiers who had similar injuries. This type of surgery is definitely very important for military.

ansible 8y ago
The Great War channel covered this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPtmFZqKC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPtmFZqKC0 Just like the article, it isn't an easy video to watch.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  When I was at German military we saw similar videos for our first aid training. The video opened my eyes. In my view this should be required viewing for everyone to make sure they understand what war really is. With all the cool smart bombs, jet fighters and night vision goggles it's being portrayed as way too clean and fun.
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    And with war-by-remotecontrol it gets ever closer to looking and feeling like a video game where you go home to your family after killing a bunch of people on the other side of the world.
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      Killing still sounds too clean. People got burned badly, lost limbs or lost half their face.

jdoliner 8y ago

I think I remember reading that the DoD deserves credit for the entire field of plastic surgery, it was originally pioneered to help soldiers who had suffered disfigurement in combat. Only later did it become something for civilian augmentation.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Close - an Ally. It was Gilles at the Royal Army Medical Corps in WW1 who pioneered skin grafts and plastic surgery. He'd done thousands of facial reconstructions by war's end. He set up a plastic surgery clinic between the wars. A relative of his, McIndoe, became famous (the better known of the two today) for his work in WW2 for pioneering and inventing many treatments for burn victims. Burns had become a common injury for pilots and aircrew. He formed the Guinea Pig Club for patients and effectively pioneered rehabilitation. He convinced the locals to visit the hospital in Sussex regularly and befriend patients. They organised trips out to the town so they could feel "normal" again (that became so common locals no longer stared), allowing a bar in the hospital, regular clothes or uniforms not PJs and countless other touches. The hospital still specialises in burns and reconstruction. McIndoe ended up with honours from most of the Allied nations if I remember right. Edit: More detail
- rhizome 8y ago
  Relevant story: https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/anna-coleman-ladd-masks-1918/ https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/anna-coleman-ladd-masks-191...
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  The Germans during WW2 had the best plastic surgery for burns.
  - NeedMoreTea 8y ago
    Do you have any citations or history books you'd recommend? That flies in the face of everything I've ever seen or read, and is not mentioned, even briefly, on Wikipedia as far as I can see. McIndoe gets extensive entries both for himself and under plastic surgery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_McIndoe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#Development_of_modern_techniques https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery#Development_of...

jonah 8y ago

Or, you know, we could just stop sending our young people out to get blown up... Kudos to the DoD for funding these experiments but they're solving a problem of their own creation...

nhfoiwehf 8y ago
> a problem of their own creation... The DoD didn't invent war. It doesn't declare war. It just fights wars. Who sends our young people to be blown up? Our elected leadership. So we all made this problem.
- jonah 8y ago
  Fair enough. I think we need to market images of badly disfigured veterans as a tragedy instead of an honor.
  - throwaway987909 8y ago
    I hate the glamorization of the military. I don't understand how anyone would actually join. Sacrifice yourself mentally, and physically to fight political wars for the rich and powerful. No thank you. But the propaganda is soooo strong it preys on people who can't think for themselves.
    - allannienhuis 8y ago
      Just on the topic of why people sign up: I think many people join because they really think they're doing something good - defending those that need protection or help from the 'real' bad guys. Obviously that's not 100% what's really going on all the time but it has enough truth in it to be attractive. And I think it's true that some real good is done by (most?) military organisations - ie disaster relief, some major engineering projects, policing in areas without effective security, etc, so some people do get to live those ideals out, and pass along that part of the military culture. It's not _entirely_ propaganda, nor it is all shooting guns at people.

extralego 8y ago

Even better would be not losing her face to begin with. This was preventable. Am I the only one to notice the events that led up to this? 1. Young girl moves multiple times due to her parent’s jobs, causing for stress and anxiety. 2. Girl finds stability and passion when she is granted an encouraging educational experience/environment at a private school where her parents both found contract jobs. 3. Parents both lost their contract jobs on the same day. 4. As a result of her parents losing their jobs, she could no longer go the school, because her parents could not afford it. 5. Her boyfriend who went to that school cheated on her. 6. She shot herself in the face. Getting cheated on in high school happens. It’s a painful experience but it’s generally a pretty good time for it to happen, because (ideally) you’re in a secure place where you can experience pain without existential loss. Moving is rough, but not nearly as rough as having your family morph between social classes. This sort of thing is just evil for a child. Either up or down is just awful. Neither you or your peers have any context for what is happening. You’re entirely misunderstood and feel out of place. I will not have kids unless I can be reasonably certain they won’t have to experience this. In her case, her family was never even in the social class she acclimated to. This is one seriously dirty trick, especially for a child. Obviously her family was doing everything they could for her. This was just out of their control. To face those complex realities that define your entire world and have it thrown in your face by your boyfriend cheating on you with someone else, both of whom presumably had the security of surplus income supporting their education and social life, is really bad. But we forget how much worse this is for a child. Children in high school are smart. They understand a lot of stuff, even the difference between rich and poor. But they should only be expected to be able to make sense of so much at a time. The whole idea of this stage is to develop a stable self-identity in an environment encouraging of education and confidence. She lost both in the blink of an eye. And she had to face the reality that going to another school like the one where she had found passion and nourishment was all just short of not happening. This is just one of the reasons these games we play with education funding and classism are sick. This girl did not have to be in her situation. We love to talk about how competition motivates innovation, but it also motivates economic rollercoasters. Maybe adults can handle that, but children simply can’t. This is one disgusting way to live and kids all over America are riding this rollercoaster while their parents do everything in their mighty will to give them a stable healthy existence. But we’ve created an America where an honest living means a shitty school and an existence no more stable than a contract job. Nobody thinks about what this does to the kids. All they see is innovation.