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[S]ome biomedical engineering students in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design Teams Program came up with the CricSpike, a device medics could use to create an artificial airway and pump air into the lungs. The equipment could keep soldiers alive until they reach a hospital...The stakes are high: In Iraq and Afghanistan, 10 to 15 percent of the preventable battlefield deaths are attributable to airway obstructions or respiratory failure, largely the result of explosives. (Cohn, 8/4)

On the one hand, the Department of Veterans Affairs attributes the lung disease that has sickened Terrence Mulligan to the contaminated tap water the former Marine drank while stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1970s. So the VA provides his medical treatment, which includes about a dozen medications, doctor appointments, an oxygen tank and a likely lung transplant.On the other hand, the VA has told Mulligan that he shouldn’t expect the VA to compensate him anytime soon for his inability to work. (Hayward, 8/3)

Pam Barfield is among the estimated 5.5 million caregivers for military veterans in the United States. More than 1 million of them, like Pam, are caring for post-9/11 veterans. ... She had to take care of him and also shoulder the responsibility of running the household. (Miller, 8/3)

UnitedHealthcare has filed protests against a federal decision last month to award two large contracts in military health care to rival insurers. The Minnetonka-based insurer currently is one of three vendors with a multiyear contract to provide services to military members, veterans and their families through the government's Tricare program. New contracts to manage the federal health program start next year and were awarded to Kentucky-based Humana and a division of St. Louis-based Centene Corp. — not UnitedHealthcare. (Snowbeck, 8/3)