Haunted by war, troubled nurse dies

"He just couldn't get it out of his mind."

Haunted by war, troubled nurse dies
Article by: PAT DOYLE , Star Tribune Updated: June 9, 2011 - 8:10 PM
Siblings say their brother, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jim Pierce, couldn't shake images of Iraq war.

Eight years ago at a U.S. military medical tent in Iraq, a local man who said he was shot while walking home asked if he was going to die.

"Not today," replied Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jim Pierce, an intensive-care nurse from Bird Island, Minn.

"Thank you very much," the Iraqi man said.

Pierce tended to Iraqis in the Iraq war with the same care he gave wounded Americans. But those who knew him well say he never recovered from the experience -- especially the sight of severely injured children -- and returned stateside traumatized, depressed and suicidal.

"He was blown up psychologically," said a sister, Amy Bursch of Foley, Minn.

Pierce, 52, a retired officer, died May 23 at his home in Goodview, Va. Authorities have not ruled on a cause of death; a medical examiner said it is under investigation.

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Haunted by war, troubled nurse dies