Specialty PTSD clinic planned for east Tennessee servicemen

Specialty PTSD clinic planned for east Tennessee servicemen
Anthony Welsch Updated: 7/10/2009


The mantle in Captain Mark Brogan's west Knoxville home is filled with memories of his time in the military and Iraq, although he can't remember some of it.

"In the beginning, it was survival really. The emotional part just wasn't there," Brogan said.

After a month-long coma, time at Walter Reed Medical Center, and surgery to install a plate to replace the piece of skull blown off by a suicide bomber, life started to return to normal.

The Purple Heart recipient returned to Knoxville, and the emotional toll of war started to surface.

"Over time, I was having nightmares. I would wake up in the middle of the night, accidentally punch my wife," he said.

Deciding he needed help was one thing, but receiving it was another.

"You have the clinic here in Knoxville, but it's rather small," he said. "We saw a person at the VA clinic here, and I was told they'd get me a gym membership so I could go work out. That'll make me feel better."

"I think the people living back home that are living comfortably without having to worry if they are going to get shot or not, we need to think what can we do for these people when they get here," State Representative Richard Montgomery, a Republican from Seymour said.

Now, in what will soon be the old Fort Sanders Hospital in Sevierville, a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder specialty clinic is in the works.

It will be a place for servicemen, law enforcement, or firefighters to get help, drastically changing how veterans are cared for.
read more here
Specialty PTSD clinic planned for east Tennessee servicemen