Veteran lobbies for brain-injury funds

Several lawmakers seek to add more to budget for services

By Tammie Smith, Richmond Times Dispatch

Feb 14, 2006

In the U.S. Air Force, Paul Blais was a highly skilled radio operator, flying with combat search-and-rescue crews.

If a service member was lost, Blais was able to use communications equipment to track the individual based on hand-held radios military personnel kept with them.

"We could track them to within a football field from 200 miles away," said Blais, who was at the General Assembly yesterday. "That is not even close to how accurate it was."

Blais, 35, doesn't do that job anymore. He can't.

The day before he was to fly a mission from Saudi Arabia in June 1996, terrorists struck the military housing facility near Dhahran, where he was staying. The attack killed 19 U.S. military personnel and injured more than 500 others.

Blais suffered a head injury. At the time, it was speculated that the explosion at Khobar Towers sent him headfirst into a wall.

He was at the General Assembly yesterday to lobby for more funding for services for people who have suffered brain injuries, be they stroke or car-wreck victims, war casualties or others.

Del. Harvey B. Morgan, R-Middlesex; Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights; and Sen. R. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, have submitted budget amendments that would provide more dollars for community-based services, such as employment programs and transportation, for people with brain injuries.

Del. John M. O'Bannon III, R-Henrico, a physician specializing in neurology, and the Virginia Alliance of Brain Injury Service Providers held the breakfast reception yesterday at the assembly.

A Virginia Health Department report that looked at brain-injury hospitalization in the state from 1999 to 2003 showed almost 20,000 hospitalizations over that period. In cases where cause was determined, the leading causes were falls, 39 percent; vehicle wrecks, 29 percent; and striking injuries, 9 percent.

"Their problems are just beginning when they leave the hospital," said Paul Aravich, an anatomy professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, who urged more support for programs that enable people with brain injuries to live productive lives and in the community.

The military retired Blais on 100 percent disability. Unable to work, he devotes his time to speaking for brain-injury issues.

"You never get over it," Blais said.