Since his third deployment to Iraq, Marine Corps Veteran Dameion Ganesh suffered from the blast of an improvised explosive device, or IED.

“I was a gunman and we got hit,” said Ganesh. “It put me out. I didn’t see it coming, it just happened.”

After that hit, Ganesh started getting headaches and didn’t think much of them. He took over-the-counter pain medication and went on with his deployment mission, but his headaches continued and started to intensify.

“It was ridiculous, my head shouldn’t be feeling like this,” said Ganesh. “I was stubborn and didn’t go to sick call.”

The IED that hit Ganesh led to a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and the subsequent migraine headaches. After separating from the Marines, the migraines started to affect Ganesh’s day to day life, and he needed relief.

“I like to think of myself as an active person, but when I get a migraine it puts me out. It disrupts everything,” said Ganesh. “I started going to the VA and I talked to my doctor about my migraines. I realized things were a lot more serious than I thought.”

Reintegration

Ganesh received a TBI screening and referral to the VA North Texas Polytrauma/TBI team. They developed and put into action treatment plan for him. The Polytrauma/TBI team at the Dallas VA Medical Center is an interdisciplinary team consisting of physicians, social workers, neuropsychologist, nurse case manager, blind rehabilitation specialist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech language pathologist, recreational therapist and prosthetist.

“Veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan are screened for TBI when they are seen at the VA,” said Danh Le, Physician Assistant in the Polytrauma/TBI suite. “We are Level 2 Polytrauma site and once the Veteran comes to us, we start them with their individual treatment.”

Some common symptoms of TBI are headaches, sleeping problems, sensitivity to light, slowed thinking, anxiety, depression and mood swings.

“One of the goals of Polytrauma/TBI is reintegration back into society – Get Veterans back out there, working, going back to school and family life,” said Le.

Ganesh is among the 383,947 diagnosed cases of service members with a TBI from 2000 to the first quarter of 2018.

“The quality of care I’ve received here has been amazing,” said Ganesh. “The VA has been a blessing for me and my family. People hear the negative stories about the VA, and they form a bias opinion and they miss out on a lot of services available to them.”

Jennifer Roy is a public affairs specialist with VA North Texas Heath Care System.

Topics in this story

IraqmigraineTBIVA North Texas

Leave a comment

The comments section is for opinions and feedback on this particular article; this is not a customer support channel. If you are looking for assistance, please visit Ask VA or call 1-800-698-2411. Please, never put personally identifiable information (SSAN, address, phone number, etc.) or protected health information into the form — it will be deleted for your protection.

14 Comments

  1. Peter Dury November 11, 2019 at 14:46

    yes, VA is amazing, if he had not been there, he will also be carrying a wrong notion about the VA

  2. Peter Dury November 11, 2019 at 11:56

    This is really scary, being a Marine Corps Veteran is so much work.
    God bless all of them wherever they are.

  3. Duncan November 11, 2019 at 11:54

    How do I get a prescription for my pain pills when the VA doctor says she can’t. She says that she will get fired if she rights me a prescription for my pain pills.

  4. for October 30, 2019 at 12:14

    All this money being spent on bogus investigations into the past can be awarding most vets claims instead they wait years when we the us spends trillions on bull. Let’s be real vets it take very little to solve most claims but most times the long process submitting claims being denied then appealing all these people suppose to do the job right when u submit your initial claim but that’s not being done don’t waste money on the broken process it’s to many horror stories dealing with the process each step is design to extend waiting period come on vets

  5. for October 30, 2019 at 12:04

    Men we must challenge the va to be better Because all your representatives are to busy supporting a crimes in the White House supporting trump when they suppose to be working for those in their districts the problems we face as vets are easy to solve if we can take billions from military and do nothing to solve vet problems but trump out front trying to take all this money for a wall vets think most of our issues don’t cost a fortune even all the claims out on hold can be paid it want put a dent in bucket we r the richest nation but we overlook veterans at a sneeze. This system should not be this difficult to fix vets are proud men and women they don’t ask for much only when the pain suffering get to be unbearable then they ask the va to help they not expecting the system to push back but it does vets if we can solve other countries financial defense food infrastructure problems then we the us can’t support vets shame on us

  6. Raymond Brown October 30, 2019 at 10:18

    Have suffered from headaches for more than 50 years. Had TBI in 1967 (Viet Nam)

  7. Ikenna Egornu October 27, 2019 at 09:34

    Makes sense

  8. crag mato October 27, 2019 at 08:38

    a TBI never heals we cope with it

  9. William Michael Stanton October 25, 2019 at 13:45

    I’ve suffered from two Tbi over a 35 year period. One about 5 years ago and one nearly 30 years ago from a near fatal helicopter crash.
    The level of care and the continuity of care I receive is problematic and inconsistent. This article paints an ideal world that isn’t my experience here in Alaska. My functional abilities are challenging on a daily basis. Getting treatment that works for me is exasperating because of inconsistent application of inconsistent VA policies interpretation as done by local managers. It has now been over 5 months and I’m getting nowhere in obtaining continuing relief from Botox that works so well for me. My quality of life could be better if I didn’t have to work so hard to get. A retired psychological physiologist.
    me.

  10. Nirali Jain October 25, 2019 at 06:55

    Thanks for the information..

  11. Leroy Owenz October 25, 2019 at 05:26

    How long does it take a traumatic brain injury to get healed anyways?

  12. leroy owenz October 25, 2019 at 05:22

    This is really scary, being a Marine Corps Veteran is so much work.
    God bless all of them wherever they are.

  13. Abraham October 25, 2019 at 01:35

    yes, VA is amazing, if he had not been there, he will also be carrying a wrong notion about the VA

  14. Michael connell October 24, 2019 at 18:15

    How do I get a prescription for my pain pills when the VA doctor says she can’t. She says that she will get fired if she rights me a prescription for my pain pills.

Comments are closed.

More Stories