Sister's love and awareness helping PTSD Veteran heal

One step at a time
They've always been close. So when Jonathan Zagami returned from Iraq suffering from PTSD, his sister Jaime went the extra mile to help.

By Bella English
Globe Staff

Four days after he turned 18, in May 2002, Jonathan Zagami enlisted in the Army Reserves and shipped out with the first ground forces that invaded Iraq. A combat engineer, he cleared minefields, did demolition work, and built camps and guard towers for the soldiers.

“I’d help load guys on the plane who were all shot up,’’ he says, recalling one soldier who had lost a leg. “I said, ‘Dude, I feel so bad for you.’ He said, ‘I feel bad for you. I’m going home.’ That was a real gut check for me.’’

Zagami had left his Needham home after high school graduation an outgoing, affable teenager: “everybody’s friend,’’ as he puts it. He returned home two years later an angry, profane stranger.

“He couldn’t even let us hug him when he first came back,’’ says his sister, Jaime.

When Jonathan and Jaime cross home plate with 3,000 others tomorrow at Fenway Park, it will be just the latest milestone the brother and sister have reached since he returned from Iraq, a wounded warrior, six years ago. They’re participating in the 9K Run To Home Base, a fund-raiser sponsored by the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital. The race benefits Home Base, a new partnership between the two organizations to treat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury — the two signature wounds of the wars.

The program began percolating in Tom Werner’s mind after the Red Sox visited veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center following the 2007 World Series championship. Werner, chairman of the Red Sox, was shocked at the high percentage of soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. The Pentagon recently announced that mental health disorders caused more hospitalizations among US troops last year than any other reason, accounting for 40 percent of all days spent in hospitals.
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One step at a time