Beyond those who give the ultimate sacrifice in defense of Iraqi and our freedom are the soldiers who are suffering horrific injuries in the war zone.

The Washington Post reports that effective body armor reduces abdominal injuries but those to the extemities, head and face are more numerous. Today’s article illustrates what field doctors are dealing with. Excerpts:

Doctors at the main combat support hospital in Iraq are reeling from a stream of young soldiers with wounds so devastating that they probably would have been fatal in any previous war.

The neurosurgeons at the 31st Combat Support Hospital measure the damage in the number of skulls they remove to get to the injured brain inside, a procedure known as a craniotomy. “We’ve done more in eight weeks than the previous neurosurgery team did in eight months,” (a medic) said. “So there’s been a change in the intensity level of the war.”

“We’re saving more people than should be saved, probably,” Lt. Col. Robert Carroll said. “We’re saving severely injured people. Legs. Eyes. Part of the brain.”

“We can save you,” the surgeon said. “You might not be what you were.”

Accurate statistics are not yet available on recovery from this new round of battlefield brain injuries, an obstacle that frustrates combat surgeons. But judging by medical literature and surgeons’ experience with their own patients, “three or four months from now 50 to 60 percent will be functional and doing things,” said Maj. Richard Gullick.

“Functional,” he said, means “up and around, but with pretty significant disabilities,” including paralysis.

The remaining 40 percent to 50 percent of patients include those whom the surgeons send to Europe, and on to the United States, with no prospect of regaining consciousness. The practice, subject to review after gathering feedback from families, assumes that loved ones will find value in holding the soldier’s hand before confronting the decision to remove life support.

“I’m actually glad I’m here and not at home, tending to all the social issues with all these broken soldiers,” Carroll said.

On a nearby stretcher, Staff Sgt. Rene Fernandez struggled to see from eyes bruised nearly shut.

“We were clearing the area and an IED went off,” he said, describing an incident outside the western city of Ramadi where his unit was patrolling on foot.

The Houston native counted himself lucky, escaping with a concussion and the temporary damage to his open, friendly face. Waiting for his own hop to the hospital plane headed north, he said what most soldiers tell surgeons: What he most wanted was to return to his unit.