CNN Too Slow to Hear Veterans Screaming For Help!

Troubled Iowa veteran sought help from VA hospital before freezing to death
CNN
Jake Tapper, Kim Berryman and Glen Dacy
Updated 4:47 PM ET, Thu March 19, 2015

Des Moines, Iowa (CNN)"I need help."

On February 15, Iraq War veteran Richard Miles entered a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, and told the staff: "I need help," according to hospital records obtained by CNN.

He had told friends he was going to check himself in. He was diagnosed with "worsened PTSD," anxiety and insomnia, but Miles was not admitted to the hospital.

Five days later the 40-year-old father was found dead in the woods, having taken a toxic amount of sleeping pills, according to a toxicology report obtained by CNN. He died from exposure to the elements.

Now those who loved him want to know why the VA hospital did not admit him when he showed up that night.

"That was his cry for help and it was not taken seriously or received the way it should have been received," said Katie Hopper, his ex-girlfriend and mother to their daughter Emmalynn.
read more here

It was a cry for help. A cry released in anguish by veterans every day that the national media has been all too slow to hear.

CNN finally reports on veteran after suicide from February.

Wounded Times managed to get the story about Missing Veteran Richard Miles Found Frozen in Park a day after it was reported on.

Friends Question If Veteran’s Death Could Have Been Prevented
13 News WHO TV
BY JODI WHITWORTH
FEBRUARY 21, 2015

Miles visited the V.A. Hospital numerous times and was treated with medication but he wanted long term hospitalization and evaluation. Allers says, “He [ Miles] did seek out that help and went through the appropriate channels he knew to follow, unfortunately it’s our belief he was let down with the assistance he was given which potentially lead us to where we are today.”

Any idea how many were lost in the month it took to tell his story? Nope and the press doesn't either.

According to the press, yet again, too removed from the topic of veterans committing suicide as well as the number of active duty members, the majority of the American people believe it is 22 a day. It is far from it.

We can start with Fort Hood and how they lost at least 8 to "under investigation" just since the beginning of the year. Here is the DOD latest report up to the 3rd quarter of 2014.

As for veterans the reports coming in from across the country on local level reporters in state after state puts the number of veterans committing suicide at double the civilian rate. The majority of them are over 50. As bad as that is years after the DOD started to do "prevention" programs, the rate of younger veterans committing suicide are triple their peer rate. These veterans are no longer counted by the DOD and they sure as hell can't count on the abysmal training they received to "prevent" them from doing it. It is such a huge issue members of Special Forces have been committing suicide.

To regular readers of Wounded Times I beg you to forgive me since I must seem like I have forgotten how many other times I have post the same thing. I know that it can be annoying for you, so you can move on since I won't really be saying anything new on this post. There's some really good ones out today including the story of Navy SEALS from PBS. I just can't give up on the rest of the country. Somehow, someway, someday, they'll finally figure out they have not been told the truth by the reporters they trusted.

February 26, KTBC News reported "On Monday Brett Aycock, a U.S. Army sniper veteran, killed himself."

Police said William Dean Poole, 52, fired the first shots after he called the Hotline for help.

How many have to scream for help before CNN, FOX and NBC hear them? How many families have to reach unspeakable pain discovering someone they loved decided to leave them and die?

How many times will it take for the rest of this country to finally discover that folks on the national level stopped reporting on their own investigations and started letting stories driven by Facebook decide whose story matters.

The rest of us know they all mattered!