Beyond The Battlefield: From A Decade Of War, An Endless Struggle For The Severely Wounded

The Defense Department uses a measure called the Military Injury Severity Score to categorize wounds. In Afghanistan, the severity scores have increased steadily since 2006, the Army reported in June.

The number of American soldiers who lost at least one limb in combat doubled from 86 in 2009 to 187 last year, while the number with multiple limb loss tripled, from 23 in 2009 to 72 last year. Those in need of blood transfusions of 10 units of blood or more (the human body holds a total of 10 units of blood) rose during that 12-month period from 91 to 165.

And triple amputees like Tyler Southern are becoming more common. Their ranks have nearly doubled this year from the total of all triple amputees seen over the past eight years of war, the Army said in its report, "Dismounted Complex Blast Injury." Huffington Post