Doctors Find Brain Injuries Among U.S. Diplomats W

Diplomats stationed in Cuba who were complaining of medical problems probably weren’t just making them up, a new paper published in JAMA on Wednesday night shows. Twenty-one members of the staff at the U.S. Embassy in Cuba showed various signs of real medical problems when they were evaluated by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair, including issues with balance and hearing.

Almost all of the diplomats showed "objective clinical manifestations" of a problem. Three people even needed hearing aids. And almost all said their symptoms—which included memory problems, dizziness, and light sensitivity—lasted for more than three months.  

These symptoms may sound familiar to people who have had a serious concussion—though the paper stops just short of putting that label on what the diplomats are experiencing. “Th Fault detection & location ese individuals appeared to have sustained injury to widespread brain networks without an associated history of head trauma,” the paper states.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana, on December 17, 2015. Twenty-four diplomats were injured from remote monitoring the inexplicable sonic attacks that occurred there between November 2016 and August 2017.  YAMIL LAGE/AFP/Getty Images