On the last day of his mission in Afghanistan, on his way to a firefight, Lieutenant Sam Brown, in his Humvee, hit an improvised exploseive device. The result being, Brown, having 30% of his body being covered with third degree burns. His injuries so severe, he was kept in a medically induced coma for the first few weeks.
Brown endured more than two dozen surgeries. The most excrciating pain came from daily wound care and physical therapy. The pain so unbearable, his superior officers would have to order him to undergo treatment.
Brown was concerned about becoming dependant on the addictive painkilling narcotics given him. His doctor suggested a video game to relieve the pain.
Video Game ? --- Pain Relief ? --- Silly ? --- Not so farfetched !
SnowWorld is a ground breaking 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.
SnowWorld uses the age old trick of distraction.
For Sam Brown, SnowWorld was a Godsend. For the first time since his accident, he felt relief from pain, without drugs.
The definitive magic of video gaming, we all knew it was there.
Source : Meghan Frank and Neal Carter
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SnowWorld Video :
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http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rock-center/49507067