High Number of Amputees

Because of advances in medicine, fewer wounded soldiers are dying than in previous wars. Excellent news. The bad news is that the percentage of amputees from this war is double what is was in World War I and World War II, presumably because those soldiers would have died in previous wars.

We celebrate that they are alive, of course! But I wonder what image most people have when they hear that "One soldier was killed and three were wounded in an attack yesterday." I've asked around a little, and most people seem to automatically think, if they think about it at all, "Oh, wounded--probably shot in the arm, he'll recover" or "took some shrapnel to the leg; they'll pick it out." I do wish that more people would realize just how wounded those "wounded" often are.