Sgt. Darron Mikeworth's wounds show human spirit and family's love

Injured GI gets new face – and anonymity

By Sharon Cohen - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Apr 26, 2009 8:40:57 EDT

SAN ANTONIO — His first glimpse in the mirror was largely a blur.

Sgt. Darron Mikeworth had just come out of a drug-induced coma — his mind was still in a fog and he was so weak he could barely stand.

Three weeks before, in Iraq, a suicide bomber had raced up to the right side of his Humvee, igniting a barrel of explosives that tore into the machine gunner’s face. He nearly died.

Mikeworth awoke in a hospital bed, thousands of miles away.

He was relieved he still had his arms and legs. He was thrilled, too, that his ears had survived the blast. But he had wounds he could not see, life-changing wounds. His wife, Dea, helped break the news: His face was in bad shape. His left eye was useless.

And there was more.

At first, Mikeworth was too groggy to absorb it all. He was caught up in hallucinations of basketball players shooting hoops in the hospital, of cars on the highway floating in air. He didn’t know what was fantasy and what wasn’t — until he shuffled into the physical therapy room and stood numbly before a full-length mirror.

“I just had to keep telling myself I’m NOT going to wake up out of this one,” he says. “THIS is not a dream. THIS is real.”
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Injured GI gets new face – and anonymity

Camp Pendleton 80% PTSD at Wounded Warrior Battalion

"Eighty percent of our residents have some degree of PTSD," Lawhorne said, referring to the disorder that requires counseling and group therapy in mild cases and more intensive psychiatric treatment and medications in its more severe form. "At the same time, we're seeing a lot more TBI cases."

MILITARY: Treating the troops
Wounded Warrior Battalion focuses on injured Marines and sailors
By MARK WALKER - Staff Writer Friday, June 20, 2008 5:13 PM PDT



CAMP PENDLETON ---- Nearly three years and 14 surgeries after the right side of his body was torn apart by shrapnel in a roadside bombing in Iraq, Marine Sgt. Sean Webster is working to save his military career.

After he was injured, he had visions of becoming a drill instructor; now, he'd be grateful for a job training fellow Marines in some less-intensive discipline.

"My goal is to stay in the Marine Corps on limited duty," the 23-year-old Virginia native said during a Wednesday interview at the base. "What I'd really like to do is stay as a staff member here."

The "here" for Webster is the Wounded Warrior Battalion West, a unit established in part because of criticisms regarding care for troops.

The battalion's mission is simple: Do all it can to help coordinate treatment for injured Marines and sailors.

Nearly 12 months after it was formally launched, the battalion's civilian and military members are working directly with or tracking more than 600 current and former troops, including 41 now living in the barracks.

The battalion and a comparable one at Camp Lejeune on the East Coast were established to provide a central point of contact for troops injured on and off the battlefield. Troops assigned to it are mostly those needing outpatient services, not the more severely wounded who are treated at comprehensive medical facilities.

"We have two main goals," said Cheryl Lawhorne, a civilian liaison officer who works to make sure troops and families are receiving the services they need. "Get them back to full ability or get them through the medical board and get them every benefit they're entitled to. We track everybody who comes through here for as long as it takes."
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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/
2008/06/20/military/z2bc7c6e36fc93b698825746c0071037d.txt
As bad as this sounds, it's actually a good thing. I know it doesn't seem that way. Because they are finally addressing PTSD and TBI, the signature wounds of Iraq and Afghanistan, they are saving lives and futures. PTSD stops getting worse when they get treated. Think of that. When Vietnam veterans came back with PTSD, no one was taking care of them and they suffered needlessly for years. These new veterans have a lot more hope now that the military has, for the most part, stopped ignoring it and blaming the troops.

If they still want to serve, then they need everything provided to help them stay in. For some, the military is part of their identity. They should be allowed to stay in and contribute to the military in whatever function they can with the wounds they carry. PTSD does not come in a "one size fits all" and there are different levels of the wound. Depending on how soon they get treatment, many can lead very productive lives even with PTSD. If they are treated with dignity, provided with the therapy they need based on them as an individual, they can stay part of the military family. For some talk therapy and medication work, others find group therapy more helpful, virtual reality works for others. Whatever works, do it.

Pfc. Chris Eckert Overdose raises questions at Walter Reed

Have you ever been in a hospital and not had a nurse bring in the medication you are supposed to take? So why is this still going on at Walter Reed?

Overdose raises questions at Walter Reed

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Mar 21, 2008 15:47:51 EDT

The night before he was to enter a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program, Army Pfc. Chris Eckert swallowed a pill prescribed to help him sleep without the nightmares that have tormented him since he left Iraq.

Then, sitting in his barracks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Jan. 17, he counted out seven methadone tablets and popped them into his mouth.

The next morning, his squad leader found him on the floor in a puddle of his own vomit, but still alive.

“They told me, ‘Your son is not going to make it,’ ” said Eckert’s mother, Rose Symborski. “He was on life support for five days.”

Since June 2007, 11 troops have died in the Army’s Wounded Warrior units, according to Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army’s Surgeon General.

Eckert’s mother blames the Army for not looking out for him, while Army officials say Eckert needed to do more to help himself. But both sides agree his case is an example of the difficulties of treating troops working through substance-abuse issues linked to post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries.

“I felt like my hands were kind of tied,” said Capt. Scott Beam, Eckert’s case manager. “In my heart ... I knew I had done all I could have.”

Symborski said she tried to alert Eckert’s chain of command at the hospital that her son was dealing with symptoms of PTSD. He suffered nightmares, couldn’t handle loud noises and was angry. He told friends he was suicidal. He was abusing pain medications and alcohol.

Eckert was serving in Iraq in early 2007 when an IED blast killed his platoon sergeant and left him with a mild traumatic brain injury.

“He was getting worse by the week,” his mother said.

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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/military_methadone_032108w/

Do they take PTSD so lightly they think they can hand a combat veteran a bottle of pills and think he will only take what he is supposed to when he is supposed to? Do they know a thing about PTSD and short term memory loss when they forget what they are doing one minute from the next at times?