Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds

Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds

B.J. Steed

Steven McFarland is a decorated war veteran who served as a gunner along the front lines in the War on Terror.

After returning home in 2006, his mother, Jan McFarland, noticed something about her son had changed.

"Tossing and turning, he was hyperventilating; if you came up behind him he would jump and scream. He didn't like being cornered in," says McFarland.

Jan, a former nurse with UAMS, recognized her son's symptoms as Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

"He would re-enact a person dying that he saw, and the death scene," McFarland says.

The 21-year-old began seeking treatment for the disorder, taking medication prescribed by his doctor.

But his mother says those doses couldn't block the terrible things he had experienced in battle.

He began medicating himself with multiple drugs.

In February, just two months after returning from battle, McFarland's lawyer, Chip Welch, says things took a turn for the worst.
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Iraq War veteran, mother battle the odds
Steven McFarland is a decorated war veteran who served as a gunner along the front lines in the War on Terror.

"We've had 7 suicides in 2009."
Watching this video provides a lot of hope that many in leadership are understanding PTSD a lot better than ever before. The story of Steven McFarland should not have happened but it did because when it comes to PTSD, there is a very long way to go but this video should restore hope that we are closer than we ever were before of getting these men and women help to heal.