Vietnam vet denied heart surgery because of PTSD

Vietnam vet denied heart surgery because of PTSD
By Sarah Stemen
The Lima News, Ohio
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Nov. 11--LIMA

Bobbi Frysinger is now fighting for her father's life, who years ago, fought for his country.

Sixty-one-year-old Robbert Legge's story begins a little more than 40 years ago, when he was on the ground fighting in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Legge was drafted in May 1970 and was honorably discharged in May 1973.

Legge, of Lima, came back from the war, as many others did, plagued with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The haunting images of the war plus a divorce he later went through caused him to develop what Frysinger called "a mental disability."

After battling the illness for a few years, Legge has not had a bout and has been mentally healthy since. But that wasn't the only health problem that he came back with after the war.

He also has suffered congestive heart failure for years, directly linked to the Vietnam War, and has had two open-heart surgeries in the past 10 years to combat the problem, one in 2007 to fix two leaking heart valves. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs officially certified his heart condition was 100 percent linked to his service in the war, Frysinger said.

Frysinger said her family was recently faced with three options for her father: a heart transplant; treat the symptoms, or in harsher terms, wait to die; or to undergo surgery where a left ventricular assist device is installed.
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