一位在美国911事件时于五角大厦担任急救先遣部队(first responder)，后来又前往阿富汗与伊拉克战场执行任务的美国陆军退役军人Justin Minyard，在一场于美国国会举行的简报会上表示，医疗科技救了他的性命。
这场简报会的主题是“创新科技对退伍军人的医疗照护”，不过讨论焦点不只是集中在战场上，美国军方医疗单位以及医疗技术供货商，目前正在思考的是针对阿富汗 与伊拉克战役退伍军人的长期照护──那些退伍军人有许多需要向美国的荣民医院(Veteran Administration hospital)医院寻求心理与身体创伤治疗。
而Minyard在简报会上现身，除了是为展示现今医疗科技的惊人进展，也凸显出一个更大的问题──美国的荣民医院对于退伍军人的慢性疼痛、夜间盗汗等大大小小症状，竟然都倾向于开镇静剂来治疗。
Minyard在911事件五角大厦遭袭击时前往现场救援，在搜寻生还者时背部受了伤，但无论是透过外科手术或是药物仍无法缓解他的疼痛；后来他前往阿富汗战场，在一个夜间任务要从直升机垂降至地面的过程中没抓好绳索，由20公尺的半空中跌落，脊髓又受了伤。
为继续执行任务，Minyard只能先自己注射药物治疗，但最后仍旧因为严重疼痛，在转往伊拉克战场时被送到野战医院；他在医院接受了更多手术治疗，症状却没有改善，下背部甚至被打入8根钛金属骨钉。那时候Minyard绝望地想，只有28岁的他，下半辈子恐怕都要在轮椅上度过，还得忍受无休止的慢性疼痛。
从伊拉克回到美国的Minyard开始接受荣民医院治疗，想当然尔也成了镇静剂成瘾者；他的生活狭隘到每天只能想着怎么才能拿到处方笺、以取得更高的镇静剂量。“我成了行尸走肉；”身材高大、如今已能笔挺站立的Minyard回忆起当时仍感到深深的遗憾，他说有好几次他都对着请他讲故事的小女儿发怒：“我的人生成了一片黑暗。”
美国陆军退役军人Justin Minyard
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这种自我厌弃的日子Minyard 再也无法忍受，在过了两年地狱般的生活后，他开始振作、积极寻找疼痛治疗专家，让他能恢复正常生活；在漫长的求诊过程中，他看过数不清的医师，最后接受了脊髓刺激疗法(spinal cord stimulation)：“这种技术救了我的命。”
脊髓刺激疗法是以电流来刺激神经，对Minyard所罹患的慢性背部疼痛通常有缓解效果。他自愿接受“试疗”，让疼痛治疗专家在他的皮下植入一个暂时性电极；在治疗过程中，电极被连接 到一个患者能自行控制的刺激器。Minyard表示，该技术对外行人的解释是，大脑会因此接受到一个“愉悦”的讯号。
无论如何，这个疗法成功了，而且非常有效！“它让我又能重新掌握人生，而不是让疼痛控制我的生活。”Minyard现在已经在皮下植入了一个永久性的刺激器，该装置配备一小段导线，能连接至神经或是插入脊髓；他表示自己是用这种装置来控制疼痛，而不是依赖镇静剂，也相信该技术能帮助其他遭受慢性疼痛之苦的病友。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
本文下一页：Minyard正游说美国政府履行对所有军人的义务
相关阅读：
• 盘点2014巴西世界杯上的高科技
• 数字医疗火爆到让三星也想分一杯羹
• 家用医疗保健市场规模2018年可达126亿美元K6Gesmc
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Minyard 背部的脊髓刺激植入装置是由Boston Scientific制造，该公司的主管也参与了简报会，并接受那位退伍军人衷心的感谢。在疼痛获得控制后，Minyard现在开始骑自行车来健身，一周通常骑400英哩的距离；他也四处旅行，向有相同症状的战友病友推荐脊髓刺激疗法，以取代服用镇静剂治疗的方式。
而就算他不在家，每天晚上还是会抽空透过电话或Facetime念故事书给女儿听──他们已经快讲完《哈利波特》第一集了。在简报最后，Minyard呼吁，从美国最近两场战役的退伍军人应该要能享受到最好、最有效的医疗科技：“我签过的工作合约是，当我从任务中返回，政府会在我因公受伤时给予照顾。”
Minyard在演讲后与大家交流
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Minyard正以他积极摆脱止痛剂的毅力，游说美国政府履行对所有军人的义务；其实治愈他的并不只是帮助他的疼痛治疗专家以及医疗科技，这位曾获得铜星勋章(Bronze Star Medal)的美国陆军退役三等士官长，是自己救了自己。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Patient, Heal Thyself!: How an Army Vet Did While Helping His Comrades，by George Leopold
相关阅读：
• 盘点2014巴西世界杯上的高科技
• 数字医疗火爆到让三星也想分一杯羹
• 家用医疗保健市场规模2018年可达126亿美元K6Gesmc
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Patient, Heal Thyself!: How an Army Vet Did While Helping His Comrades
George Leopold
WASHINGTON -- Justin Minyard, a 9/11 first responder at the Pentagon who went on to serve tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, insists "medical technology really did save my life."
Justin Minyard
(Source: US Army)
The 13-year Army veteran appeared at a Capitol Hill briefing this week to discuss "innovations in veteran's care." The focus was not just on battlefield care, although there have been plenty of innovations since the beginning of the Afghan war in the fall of 2001. Military doctors and the companies that make medical technologies are now thinking about long-term care for the Afghan and Iraq war veterans standing in long lines at Veteran Administration hospitals seeking treatment for physical and psychological wounds.
Minyard's presence at the briefing was designed to showcase the marvels of medical technology, but it is also highlighted a larger problem: the VA's shocking propensity for dispensing opiates by the handfuls as a cure for everything from chronic pain to night sweats. Minyard was swept up in the dysfunction, and could have easily slipped beneath the water as have so many shattered veterans.
Instead, Minyard chose to heal himself.
Following the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon, Minyard ruptured several discs in his back while searching for survivors. Neither back surgeries nor drug regimens eased his pain. He suffered additional spinal injuries during a nighttime operation in Afghanistan in which he and other soldiers riding in a helicopter were to lower themselves to the desert floor by rope. Minyard missed the rope, fell 20 meters and five fully equipped comrades landed on top of him.
By the time he reached Iraq (he speaks Arabic), Minyard's chronic back pain from extensive nerve damage was so debilitating that he had to be medevacked to a field hospital. Prior to his collapse, he was receiving spinal injections and was injecting himself with pain killers before "we would lock and load our weapons and go out the gate" on another patrol.
More surgeries followed, but brought no relief. After a complex procedure in which eight titanium rods were inserted in his lower back, Minyard's prognosis boiled down to this: The doctors had done all they could and, at 28, he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
"I was in a massive amount of chronic pain that dominated my entire life."
Justin Minyard returned from Iraq a broken man, figuratively and literally. His encounters with the breathtakingly incompetent VA healthcare system predictably resulted in his addiction to opiates. His life was now reduced to little more than thinking about refilling his prescriptions and scheming to obtain higher dosages.
"I was occupying space," he recalled, deeply regretting the many times he snapped at his young daughter when she asked him to read to her. "My life took a very, very dark turn," the tall, ramrod straight Minyard told a packed room in the Rayburn House Office Building.
Next Page: Self-loathing -- the mother of invention
Wracked with self-loathing, Minyard could stand it no longer. After two years in hell, he somehow pulled himself together and began a lengthy search for a pain specialist who could end his addiction and give him back his life. No functionary or bureaucrat could stop him. He walked through countless doctor's office lobbies to confront specialists until at long last he found one willing to help.
The answer, it turned out, was spinal cord stimulation. Minyard repeated during the Hill briefing, "This technology saved my life."
Spinal cord stimulation involves nerve stimulation that uses an electric current to treat chronic pain, often lower back pain like Minyard's.
Volunteering for a "test run," a pain specialist inserted a temporary electrode under Minyard's skin. During the outpatient procedure, the electrode was connected to the stimulator a patient can control. The layman's explanation is that the technique essentially tricks the brain into receiving a "pleasure" signal, Minyard said.
It worked! In fact, it worked so well that Minyard wanted to go straight to the operating room to have a permanent implant installed. "It was like a lightning bolt," he said. "It put me back in control of my life. Pain was no longer in control of me."
Afghanistan and Iraq war veteran
Justin Minyard works the crowd
after a presentation on medical
technologies for treating chronic pain.
(Source: George Leopold)
A permanent stimulator was implanted under his skin along with small coated leads that can be connected either to nerves or inserted in the spinal canal. Minyard said he uses the device to manage his pain rather than resorting to opiates. He's convinced the technology will work for other vets suffering from chronic pain.
Boston Scientific makes the spinal cord stimulator implanted in Minyard's back. Company officials attended the briefing. The Army veteran thanked them profusely during his stirring 15-minute presentation.
His pain under control, Minyard has turned to competitive cycling as a kind of physical and spiritual therapy. He typically rides more than 400 miles a week.
The veteran's biggest regret is the way he treated his daughter while he was in the throes of addiction. Today, he travels widely to help his fellow vets while raising awareness about spinal cord stimulation as an alternative to opiates in the treatment of chronic pain.
But every night he finds the time to read to his daughter over the phone or via Facetime. They've almost finished the first Harry Potter book, he added with obvious satisfaction.
Minyard ended by noting that the veterans of America's last two wars deserve access to the best, most effective medical technologies available. "I signed a contract. In return for my service, the government will take care of me if I get injured on the job."
The veteran's advocate is now applying the same gumption he summoned to break his addiction to pain killers in a lobbying effort designed to force the government to honor its obligations under that contract.
The pain specialist and the medical technology alone did not save him. In the final analysis, US Army Sergeant 1st Class Justin Minyard (Retired), recipient of the Bronze Star Medal awarded for acts of heroism, saved himself.
责编：Quentin
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