On the newest episode of the Vets First Podcast, Dr. Levi Sowers and Brandon Rea host Dr. Steve Fliesler, a distinguished professor at the University of Buffalo and research scientist at the Buffalo VA who holds an endowed chair in ophthalmology and spearheads research in the Department of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Fliesler studies the visual impact of primary blast injuries on service members and the delayed onset of symptoms like double vision and visual acuity issues. His research, relying heavily on animal models due to human research constraints, explored the molecular retinal changes of post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) from blast exposure.
In the episode, Fleisler discusses different studies and their results in an effort to yield effective treatments for Veterans affected by blast injuries. It concludes with a pitch for the Million Veteran Program (MVP), a national research program looking at how genes, lifestyle, military experiences and exposures affect health and wellness in Veterans. Since launching in 2011, almost 990,000 Veterans have joined MVP—the largest research effort at VA to improve health care for Veterans, and one of the largest research programs in the world studying genes and health.
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I was stationed in Ft Knox . On a training action , as a passenger in front seat of a Duce and a quarter. The driver went over a cliff on the right hand side, trapping me against the dash and the windshield. I suffered a sever head injury, a couple of bars went thru my leg and tore my shoulder out of socket.
I’ve been compensated for head injury and so fort, however I’ve developed double vision and loss of vision in both eyes. They say I’ve got torn rent’s that are very difficult to repair, if not impossible to do.
They believe this problem may very well be due to the head injury. How do I proceed?
Very interesting. During my time in Vietnam, I was driving a APC and hit a mine. The blast was right under the drivers front drive wheel. This was 56 years ago. Maybe I have a hearing loss and tinninus in both ears. the last 3 to 5 years I have had terrible head aches and blurred vision. At the time I was only treated for minor wounds on my leg. I have never been tested for a TBI or concussion. I would be interested i nlearning more.