'Final desperate act': husband talks of wife-soldier's suicide

Military confirmed another suicide

CFB Suffield base commander Lt.-Col. Sean Hackett confirmed Thursday that Cpl. Adam Eckhardt of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry took his own life on Jan 3. The 29-year-old Trenton, Ont. native, a married father of two, showed no outward signs of depression and had not sought treatment, said Hackett.

'Final desperate act': husband reveals details of another Canadian soldier's suicide
CTVNews.ca
Staff
January 8, 2014

What initially appeared to be a tragic Christmas Day accident on an Alberta highway was actually the “final desperate act” of a Canadian soldier who died of suicide, her husband has revealed to CTV News.

Retired Cpl. Leona MacEachern, a 20-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, intentionally drove her car into an oncoming transport truck on the Trans-Canada highway near Calgary, her husband Tom said in a written statement.

The Dec. 25. crash instantly killed the 51-year-old who served with the military police and in the First Gulf War. The two occupants of the tractor trailer were not seriously hurt.

MacEachern, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had left a note for her family.

Her loved ones believe that she developed PTSD as a result of “protracted battles” with Veterans Affairs over medical benefits for dental work she had done in the late 1980s, while she was stationed in Germany during the First Gulf War.

“We would like to say that Leona had slipped through the cracks in the system but, in fact, there does not seem to be ‘a system,’” Tom wrote, noting that MacEachern’s PTSD treatment consisted of seeing a psychiatrist for 45 minutes a week.

“When symptoms became worse she was referred into the Alberta Public Health care system which was even worse,” Tom said.

“Various medications led to new side effects and symptoms and assessments were done on lockdown psychiatric wards alongside the deeply disturbed and those under observation in relation to criminal matters. A couple of visits to emergency rooms when she reported suicidal thoughts were met with a quick visit by the ‘crisis team’ who then sent her home.”
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