When the body of 29-year-old Navy SEAL operator Ryan Larkin was found in his home, he was dressed in a SEAL Team shirt, flanked by the many medals he earned in service. He had survived four gruesome combat tours throughout his ten years of service. But, on a Sunday morning in 2017, he succumbed to suicide.
Getting to the truth
What didn’t kill Larkin in Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t make him stronger. Ryan was a Navy SEAL, sniper, combat medic, and instructor who taught other operators how to breach buildings with explosives. Over the years, he experienced countless blast waves and even survived a close call with an IED (improvised explosive device).
Larkin was in terrible pain and was convinced it was all due to brain damage he had suffered during service. He studied dozens of research papers on traumatic brain injury desperately trying to understand what was happening to him after doctors couldn’t find anything physically wrong with him.
Months before he took his own life, Larkin instructed his parents to donate his brain to science. Indeed, a postmortem of Larkin’s brain uncovered a pattern of brain trauma. His brain’s tissue, internal linings, and blood vessels exhibited microscopic tears that aren’t visible in standard brain scans.
“He knew,” Frank Larkin, Ryan’s father, told NBC News. “I’ve grown to understand that he was out to prove that he was hurt, and he wasn’t crazy.”
“Ryan died from combat injuries, just not right away,” the grieving father said during an interview with AP.
This tragic case highlighted major deficiencies in how the military mitigates blast risks for its servicemen. It also brought to light a woeful lack of understanding of traumatic brain injury. It’s not just veterans that should be worried. The CDC estimates that around 1.5 million people undergo at least one episode of traumatic brain injury every year, ranging from mild concussions to severe disabilities and even death.
The researchers noted that “all cases of chronic blast exposure had an antemortem diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder”. They also mention that there were no guidelines available at the time of the study for the definitive diagnosis or treatment of blast-associated traumatic brain injuries, “partly because the underlying pathology is unknown”.
Ryan’s parents recount how their son complained about terrible headaches and had trouble sleeping. Ryan’s personality also changed for the worse after every combat tour. He stopped smiling, was often anxious, and had a quick temper.
Hidden battle
Eventually, Ryan was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He tried over 40 different medications, most of which only made his condition worse. The problem was that Ryan’s troubles weren’t purely psychological — there were also physical lesions in his brain. Essentially, without knowledge of these lesions he couldn’t be effectively diagnosed.
“You become very vulnerable with a lack of good science to help support your decisions,” Frank Larkin said.
“He knew that he wasn’t going to get…
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