Military families cope with traumatic brain injury at West Orange hospital

Its been three years since Scot Noss and Anthony Thompson suffered traumatic brain injuries while serving with the military overseas. Noss, 32-year-old U.S. Army Ranger from Birmingham, Ala., was the worst injured survivor of a helicopter crash in Afghanistan in January 2007. A few months later, Thompson, a 28-year-old Navy medic from Houston, Texas, was serving with a Marine unit in Iraq when his post was blown up by a massive suicide truck bomb. Though they never met before their injuries, the mens lives are now forever entwined. Their wives, RyAnne Noss and Ivonne Thompson, met shortly after they were injured and formed a close bond. Theyve shared hotels and hospital rooms ever since as they navigate the strange and little understood world of traumatic brain injury. Their search for experimental and intensive therapies ultimately led them to the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, one the leading research facilities for traumatic brain injury. (Video by Nyier Abdou/The Star-Ledger)