By Meghan Frank and Neal Carter
Rock Center
Lieutenant Sam Brown could not wait to experience combat.
“It's an interesting thing, this desire to go to combat. It's something that's fantasized for people that have not experienced it,” Brown told NBC’s Natalie Morales in an interview airing Thursday on Rock Center with Brian Williams. “And so, I had a really strong desire to be a part of that. To me, that was a way to serve my country,” he said.
Lieutenant Sam Brown
Born to a proud military family, Brown attended the United States Military Academy at West Point and trained to become a member of the elite Army Rangers 1st infantry division. In 2008, Brown deployed for his first tour of duty to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
But on the last day of his mission, a nearby platoon was ambushed. Lieutenant Brown sprang into action, leading his troops to the vicious firefight to provide backup.
“I led them to the combat. And then, that's when we hit the IED.,” recalled Brown.
His Humvee ran over an improvised explosive device and exploded into a fireball. His body was engulfed in flames and Brown suffered third degree burns over 30% of his body. His injuries were so severe he was kept in a medically induced coma for the first few weeks to help him survive.
Brown was airlifted back to the United States and examined by Dr. Christopher Maani, an anesthesiologist in the burn unit of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.
“With burn injury, that rehabilitative process can go on for weeks to months, sometimes even years if the burn is significant enough as it was in Sam's case,” Dr. Maani said.
Remains of Lt. Sam Brown's Humvee after running over IED
Lt. Brown endured more than two dozen painful surgeries, but the most excruciating pain came from the daily wound care and the physical therapy that followed. The procedures were so unbearable that there were times when Brown's superior officers would have to order him to undergo treatment.
Brown was deeply concerned about growing dependent on the addictive painkilling narcotics he needed to take. So, his doctor suggested something completely unexpected to relieve his pain: a video game.
“I was a little bit skeptical. But honestly, I was willing to try anything,” Brown admitted.
A video game may sound silly, but this particular game, SnowWorld, is a groundbreaking experiment in virtual reality. In SnowWorld, Brown could concentrate on throwing snowballs at penguins and mastodons to the music of Paul Simon, instead of focusing on the painful wound care happening at the same time.
Dr. Maani explained that SnowWorld uses the age old trick of distraction.
“It's saying, ‘Hey, look over there,’ when you rip off your child's band aid,” Dr. Maani said.
The video game provides the distraction that overwhelms the senses and diverts the brain’s attention away from processing the pain signals.
The virtual reality of SnowWorld was dreamed up at the University of Washington by two psychologists, Dr. David Patterson and Dr. Hunter Hoffman.
SnowWorld
Dr. Patterson had been working with burn patients and he explained that the treatment they have to undergo is excruciating and can feel more painful than getting the burn itself.
“With virtual reality distraction, you're taking a painful procedure like scrubbing off a wound,” Patterson said. “You're just taking the person and putting them in an alternate world. And it works for as long as people seem to be in the virtual world.”
Dr. Hoffman had been using virtual reality to help people confront their fear of spiders. But this time, instead of bringing his patients face to face with what they dreaded most, he'd do the opposite. The doctor decided to give them a soothing icy world to make them forget.
In 2011, the military conducted a small study using SnowWorld and got stunning results. For soldiers in the worst pain, SnowWorld worked better than morphine. And, with thousands of troops having suffered severe burns and trauma from IED blasts, the military is determined to find new ways to treat pain.
WATCH ROCK CENTER VIDEO: Doctor prescribes video game to ease soldier's pain
Dr. Hoffman is surprised when it comes to the therapy’s success.
“The fact that you're getting such huge reductions in pain using something that's not a drug is a paradigm shift,” he said.
For Sam Brown, SnowWorld was a Godsend. For the first time since his accident, he felt relief, without drugs.
“I really had very little sensation of pain, as I had previously experienced,” Brown said.
But it wasn't just SnowWorld that helped Brown recover. He found something even more powerful to heal his pain.
When Lt. Brown was out of the hospital, his dietician Amy Larsen would call and check to make sure he was receiving his nutritional supplements. One time when she called his old self came through.
“I asked if there was anything else that he needed. And he kind of started to joke around with me a little bit, and he said, 'Can you send me some doughnuts too?'” Larsen laughed. “And then I could tell that Sam kind of wanted to talk a little bit more.”
Brown worked up the courage to ask Larsen out to a rodeo and the two began dating, but at times he couldn't believe that what was happening was real. Brown had convinced himself that no one would ever be able to look beyond his physical scars.
One day a chaplain came to speak with Brown and reassured him he would find someone who would see past his wounds.
Brown said the chaplain told him “Someone will see beyond those scars, will fall in love with you, and you'll have a beautiful family one day." Laughing in disbelief, Brown dismissed the chaplain’s words, but six months later the chaplain was officiating Larsen and Brown’s wedding.
Three years after the blast Brown and Larsen welcomed a son, Roman, into the world. Brown lives with very little pain now and he says he no longer needs the distraction of SnowWorld.
The combat soldier turned family man has a brighter outlook on the new life around him. Brown said with pride, “The world I have now with Amy, and Roman, and God willing, more children, is all I need.”
Lt. Sam Brown with his wife Amy and son Roman
Leave a Comment:
Why not do both?
The only problem I can see with this wonderful development is when you take money from big brother (Meds) he gets angry. The feds will find some way to shut it down. If they cant push there pills they remove the threat.
I'm able to do this with my mind, to deliberately not think of extreme pain. Painkillers don't work very well on me. I get through dental procedures by forcing myself to make my mind go elsewhere.
Years ago my grandmother told a story about when her oldest son got some scheduled childhood shots. He was dreading the shots so much, but when he arrived the doctor asked him to explain a small toy he'd brought along. As the child described the toy in detail, the doctor gave him the shots and the child didn't even realize it had happened. To me, this sounds like the same basic idea. The brain is focusing so much on something and the painful situation is overlooked. Effective, harmless and a blessing to all.
Of course its gonna help to a certain degree! BUT,it Won't take the pain out of a speeding ticket!
The video game seems to act like a placebo. And it kind of proves that some if not most pharmaceuticals ain't worth jack-sh1t! I'll lay a little bet that if they allow soldiers with PTSD to smoke a joint / pot, that would alleviate much of the tension the soldier must feel. But pharmaceuticals don't make money if people can grow their own medicinals and of course they finance campaigns to see that pot remains illegal.
Yep, and if they were allowed a dose of morphene it would do it alot better. Pot remains illegal because it's bad for you. I know you won't belive it, but that's fine... Studies show the IQ of a pot smoker is anywhere from 4-10 points lower.. and 100 is the average.
You are one of those who never inhaled aren't you? Don't know what you're missing. Makes people like you much more fun to be around and prettier too! Just think if your wife/husband woke up one morning completely sober and turned over to you and realized you're butt-head uglier that sin?
I can see it being beneficial for people who are injured/ill - in pain and immobile - otherwise, research has shown that some video games cause stress, lack of empathy, and game addiction with lack of exercise, poor diet, etc.
This kind of treatment is wonderful. I myself have a lot of physical ailments that make daily live a bit of a chore, but when I plug in my headphones and listen to my favorite artist, it really takes all my pain away. I can even keep up with other tasks better when my brain is distracted from my discomfort. I'm able to sleep, eat, play and even work because of how wonderful our brains are (and with a minimum of medication!).
A Great story!!
This is an incredible story of overcoming pychological and physical hell. I think this guys gut-hunch to stay away from the pills was dead on. One of the greatest assumptions about addiction is that it will be obvious when it happens to you, or someone you know.
Let me play out a scenario: Someone ends up in a doctors office in intense pain. Maybe it's physical pain, like this guy...a burn victim or someone who's just been in a car accident and has half their guts spilling out. Maybe it's a different form of pain, mental pain, like someone who has serious depression, anxiety/paranoia i.e. has experienced some form of a mental breakdown. These people go to the doctor for help, they trust the doctor to know what is best to do to fix them. Unlike this guy, most people will do what their doctor tells them, without question.
And the pain goes away, you get a little high at first, but that's secondary to getting rid of the pain...right? It's even more confusing to a pain pill/benzo addict when the high goes away. It's called developing a tolerance. How can you be an addict when you don't even get high when you take your pills?
Maybe because they're constantly high? Welcome to your new reality. Anything you'd like to change here?
It's all over the place and lot's of addicts are very functional people. Pain pills to H to benzo's, @!$%#, maybe even antidepressents. Anything can be addictive, it's whatever your mind chooses to take the pain away in. And trust me, it's NOT that the pain wasn't their to begin with. The question is this: are you sure the original pain is still there? Are you sure it's not your drugs creating it? Because if you stop and the pain gets better/goes way, what does that mean? By then you may find yourself in the middle of a drug withdrawal and I think you know what that means.
I commend this man for following his gut- and being cautious with what his doc was prescribing, despite what must have been agonizing pain.
Let's keep this quiet.
The Pharmaceutical Companies will buy up the video games and then charge hundreds for each "dose".
/angry snark. If they could, they would.
Do you get charged hundreds for each dose of tylenol or ibuprofen?
And that's what he gets for wanting to jump into combat; thinking that the real world is just like playing Call Of Duty.
I guess he didn't realize that in real life his health doesn't regenerate in a few seconds and there are no respawn points.
yep, that's what he gets for not sitting on the internet bad mouthing people who are risking their lives.. In this case to intervene in an ambush. Luckily for the rest of us the U.S. has more people like him, and not filled with people like you.
Patient: I'm in a lot of pain doctor
Doctor: Let me write you a prescription for Maximus Refiefolulus (pharmaceutical name for Black Ops 3)
Pharmacy: We'll have that prescription filled in 30 minutes
Pharmaceutical companies: Heading to the bank because all they had to do is put a medical label on a game to rake in the profits for selling it at $150 over its commercial over-the-counter price of $59 because when its prescribed the insurance companies are going to pay for the prescription form of the 'drug'.
Great artical, I was actually recently reading a Japanese light novel and it had something very similar to this introduced only it was on a futuristic setting around 12 years into the future. I think this is an amazing technology and something that should be explored much more extensively than it currently is. It's pretty crazy when you think of all the possibilities something like this can open up for such a wide range of people. Not to mention how much it could be expanded and the things that could be accomplished through it.
I sufferd a left ceribelum/brainlobe damage from stroke. Dissected the left internal corrated artery further damaging the left inside of my brain. Unable to fuction I quit my medications to lay down and die. Ended up back in the hosp. with more damage from my feel sorry for myself attempt at suicide. Unable to walk right and talk or put things togeather for years. Relearning not only to talk and walk again but simple things I lost or forgot I was at wits end and not wanting to try anymore again. If you have never gone thru any kind of trauma you can have no idea what these solders and others that have are going thru. Long story short. My eldest daughter talked me int playing the original version of EverQuest with her. Just to talk to me thru the day and give me incouragement being across country from eachother. I owuld sit int he game and take long periods to move my caiture and open menus and try to and finally learn what they did. For well over a year I lived vicariously in that game. I could run, i could jump I could in my mind be me again in some way. Another old friend (Cyberian) kept me ingauged in talking with handfree voice chat. I never tryed or wanted to quit again and have recoverd well. All thanks to the patiance of my daughter and Ian as well as a Video game. For my recovery and determination to doso. I told many years ago. Videogames should be reserched for use in recovery of certain traumas instead of being used as a baby sitter becuase you can't communicate with your kids or can't find the time.
Glad he made the decision to see what else was available to deal with the pain. Good call LT. Glad that the havens have given you a new purpose in the life you have fought so valiantly to create. God Bless!
Ever wonder how Buddhist monks can set themselves on fire and calmly sit and burn to death? How did the Tibetan monks endure 20 -30 years of solitary confinement and torture?
The Buddhists and Taoists are light years ahead of the world's 'thinkers' in the understanding and direct experience of 'mind'. Something for all of us to learn....about the potential of being human.
OneTao.com
Such a beautiful story, god bless them!
LT, you make the Cadre proud.
Glad you found a way to bypass and overcome.
I knew first hand those drugs were NOT a treatment. They only mask the pain untill the individual figures out how to cope and live with it. I couldn't even work because one the pill just makes you so drowsy that even with 12 hours of sleep I was nodding off in the middle of the day. HORRIBLE stuff
Video Games Like Grand Theft Auto Make People go On Murderous Rampages !
And spoons make you fat! And cars make you crash! And alcohol makes you drive! And water makes you drowned!
Look up the facts instead of blindly following the "intelectualls" there is no evidence of any of that.
This is awesome. This will bring us back to our true state of being. If we can be diverted from the pain then we are always already prior to the pain and only feel it because of our attention. So let's reverse engineer this idea and say that we are here in our painful lives, if yours isn't painful yet just wait until you get old, because of the "video game" of life itself. Being in a body, apparently separate from everyone else. Then, different religions, different languages, then even worse, the ENEMY. All of this a type of video game to cause the suffering of human existence. So we use video games to get back to the prior state of being itself, pain free. Very interesting to say the least!
My Fiance Practices Pain Control By Thinking Herself As Being In A Pleasant Location. Will Not Take Anethesia Even For Root Canals or Minor Surgeries. Trust Me She Has Refused Pain Medicene In Cases That Would Never Work For Me. She Is A Retired E.R. Registered Nurse And Truly Amazes Me.
Dr Patterson has been investigating and utilizing these hypnotic and distraction techniques in burn patients for well over ten years, as a means to alleviate the agonizing pain and suffering when old dead burned skin is scrubbed off in the hospital to cleanse the areas and make way for new skin to grow. It seems to be intended as an adjunct to standard burn treatment and, right now, only used during those numerous, intensely painful procedures burn patients endure in the healing process. The non-addicting nature of this approach is an added plus.