Ia anapolis the war college of navy seal10/25/2023 ![]() In Ryan's case, the scarring was in a thick band just under the surface, between the gray and white matter, on the brain's front, back, and sides. Over 30 veterans and service members have committed suicide a day in the past two years due to COVID isolation.īut tests on Ryan's brain after his suicide, which doctors could not perform on a living person, proved otherwise: He had suffered prominent interface astroglia scarring - evidence of the brain trying, paradoxically, to heal itself after damage even as the process likely interferes with nervous system function. His family stepped into the spotlight as advocates for what they say is a deadly serious but not-well-understood problem with service members and veterans like their son.įrank believes the high number of veteran suicides - averaging 17 to 22 a day - may be linked to undiagnosed injuries caused by repeated exposure to brain-rattling blasts from explosives and munitions. He didn't want his friends to go through what he was going through."įive years after Ryan's death, the work he inspired continues. "He was trying to call attention to teammates who were struggling. "He knew exactly what he was doing the day he took his life," said Ryan's dad Frank. He instructed his family that when he died, they were to donate his brain to research. The doctors agreed that whatever suspicion he had was just in his head.īut the doctors' diagnosis didn't convince him. ![]() But tests for a brain injury came back negative. In the years before his death, Ryan saw multiple doctors, first through the Navy and later the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
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