Police officer took time to save life of Iraq Veteran

Braintree officer probably saved life of Iraq War vet, chief says
Braintree Police Chief Russell Jenkins said Friday that the quick actions of a town police officer “more than likely” saved the life of a young Iraq War veteran found unconscious after a possible drug overdose.
By Patriot Ledger staff
Posted Feb. 15, 2014

BRAINTREE – Police Chief Russell Jenkins said Friday that the quick actions of a Braintree officer “more than likely” saved the life of a young Iraq War veteran who was found unconscious after a possible drug overdose.

Jenkins said officer Brian Eng was sent to a Braintree home on Feb. 4 for a report of a possible drug overdose and had to force his way in after nobody came to the door. The caller who reported the overdose directed Eng to an attic bedroom, where the officer found a 21-year-old man who was not breathing and did not appear to have a pulse.
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Veterans dying from overmedication

Veterans dying from overmedication
CBS News
By Jim Axelrod
September 19, 2013

(CBS News) Veterans by the tens of thousands have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with injuries suffered on the battlefield. Many of them seek treatment at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Now a CBS News investigation has found that some veterans are dying of accidental overdoses of narcotic painkillers at a much higher rate than the general population -- and some VA doctors are speaking out.

Five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left 35-year-old Army Spc. Scott McDonald with chronic back pain.

His wife Heather said over the course of a year, VA doctors in Columbus, Ohio prescribed him eight pain and psychiatric medications.

"It just got out of control," said Heather. "They just started pill after pill, prescription after prescription...and he'd come home with all brand-new medications, higher milligrams."

Then a VA doctor added a ninth pill -- a narcotic called Percocet. Later that evening, Heather came home from work and found Scott disoriented on the couch.

"And I asked him," Heather recalled, "'You didn't by chance by accident take too many pills, did you?' And he's like, 'No, no. I did what they told me to take, Heather.' I popped a pillow under his head and that's how I found him the next morning, exactly like that."

McDonald wasn't breathing. The coroner's report ruled his death accidental. He had been "overmedicated" and that he died from the combined effects of five of his medications.
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News coverage of unemployed multi-tour veteran ends job search

Local Buffalo Veteran Lands Job Through WGRZ Channel 2 Interview
WGRZ News
Jun 20, 2013

BUFFALO, NY - Soldiers who fight for our freedom overseas come home to a new battle - finding a job.

In fact, 19.1 percent of young veterans between the ages of 20-24 are unemployed. That was the case for Williamsville native Eric Chiazza.

The 23-year-old Marine veteran was deployed three times in four years. He did tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti. Once returning home to Buffalo, Chiazza struggled to find a job that fit his unique skill set and paid enough to cover his bills.

"When you get out of the military, you're kind of on your own... It's kind of scary, and I was worried that based on the job choice I had, that my job choices were limited and that it would be difficult to find one," Chiazza said.

2 On Your Side wanted to help.

During the first week of June, Chiazza was featured in a story about veterans struggling to find work. He shared his frustrations about how he was unable to find a well paying job in Western New York.

Later that week, Chiazza attended the "Hire Our Heroes" job fair sponsored by 2 On Your Side. The event brought over 60 employers from all over Western New York together to helpveterans and military spouses find jobs. Chiazza applied at a few different places, but nothing clicked.

Meanwhile, David Jones, Regional Vice President of Executive AirShare, was watching the night that Chiazza's story aired and wanted to do help. He attended the job fair in hopes of finding Chiazza, but the two didn't connect. Jones decided to contact 2 On Your Side, and was put in touch with Chiazza to set up a job interview.
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Claim: Pill mill tied to Fort Riley soldier overdoses

Claim: Pill mill tied to Fort Riley soldier overdoses
Apr. 23, 2013
By Heather Hollingsworth
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, MO. — A Kansas doctor was charged Tuesday with operating a pill mill for painkillers and antidepressants after police and Fort Riley officials raised concerns about overdoses — some of them involving soldiers and their families.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleged in a criminal complaint that Michael P. Schuster, 53, conspired to illegally distribute controlled substances. The charges were filed the same day that the FBI searched Schuster’s clinic, called Manhattan Pain and Spine. The clinic is in Manhattan, Kan., about 15 miles from Fort Riley, a U.S. Army base that is home to the 1st Infantry Division.

“Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem,” said U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom in a written statement. “Health care providers are a critical part of our effort to keep the public safe. Without proper controls, prescription drugs are just as dangerous as any street drug.”
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A Soldier's Battle Lost After Returning Home

A Soldier's Battle Lost After Returning Home
by NPR STAFF
January 12, 2013

Spc. Lance Pilgrim was among the first Army troops to enter Iraq in March 2003.

Eventually, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and died from an accidental overdose in 2007 at the age of 26.

His father, Randy Pilgrim, says he first realized something was wrong when his son broke down at the sight of an animal that had been run over. The image had triggered the memory of a traumatic time overseas.

"We tried once to go around bodies in Iraq, but we were ambushed. So we were told from then on, don't let anything slow you down," Lance Pilgrim told his father. "I had to run over people. ... I don't think I'll ever get that out of my mind."

That same summer, he started managing his panic attacks with pain medication. His mother, Judy Pilgrim, says he became dependent on it.

Then he started leaving the base without permission, showing up at home in the middle of the week. He finally got an Other Than Honorable Discharge, which meant his service in Iraq no longer qualified him for veterans benefits — or military funeral honors when he died.
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Veterans Affairs to track how veterans die

UNCOUNTED CASUALTIES: NEW DETAILS
Department of Veterans Affairs to track how veterans die
By Jeremy Schwartz
American-Statesman Staff
Dec. 22, 2012

More than two months after the American-Statesman detailed how hundreds of Texas veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have died since coming home — and the government’s failure to adequately track them — the Department of Veterans Affairs said it will launch a mortality study that will seek similar information for veterans nationwide.

While the VA has periodically studied suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, it has done far less to understand other causes of death, including drug overdose. A six-month Statesman investigation found that nearly as many Texas veterans had died after taking prescription medicine as have committed suicide.

Using autopsy results, toxicology reports, inquests and accident reports from more than 50 agencies throughout the state, the Statesman determined the causes of death for 266 Texas veterans who served in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and were receiving Department of Veterans Affairs disability benefits when they died. It was the first time a comprehensive view of how recent Texas veterans are dying has been produced.

The Statesman investigation found that the VA doesn’t track individual causes of death for the veterans it serves, and until now, hasn’t publicly released a comprehensive breakdown of causes of death.
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Heartbroken Family Hopes To Help Others Battling PTSD

Heartbroken Family Hopes To Help Others Battling PTSD
Monday, November 12, 2012
Cathy Hernandez
Anchor/Multimedia Journalist
KDBC.com

EL PASO — Thousands of military members who go overseas to fight in war come back home with post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, and the consequences can be tragic. A family who lost their loved one during his battle with PTSD is dedicating their lives to helping other military members and their families.

At a young age, Anthony Patrick Mena knew he was going to defend our country. He graduated from Eastwood High School in 2004 and joined the Air Force, based at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

"He loved his job. He was very young. He was only 18. It was the month after he had graduated from high school when he took off to basic training," said Pat Mena.

And not long after, he was ready to deploy to Iraq.

"He was really anxious to deploy,” said Pat Mena. “That was his big dream to serve his country, to go abroad and I begged him, 'Please hold off. Our country is at war right now' and I remember him telling me. We were sitting right here and he said, 'Momma, someone has to defend our country.'”

He returned home six months later. But, Pat Mena said her son was eager to go back. Just a year later, he deployed for a second time on a special mission to train Iraqi police officers.
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Accidental overdose killed Fort Riley Sgt

Police: Accidental overdose killed Riley sgt.
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Oct 25, 2012

OGDEN, Kan. — Riley County police say a Fort Riley soldier found dead at his off-post home accidentally overdosed on medication he was taking after surgery.

Officers were called to the Ogden home of 33-year-old Army Sgt. Duriel Powell the morning of Sept. 28 after a relative found him not breathing. Emergency responders said Powell was deceased by the time they arrived.
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Senators promise answers on VA medication deaths

Senators promise answers on I-Team report
Steve Daniels

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- Both of North Carolina's senators promise action after an ABC11 I-Team report on the deaths of U.S. troops blamed on "fatal drug intoxication."

"We will look into this in great detail - work with the military and the VA - to understand better the decisions that were made," said Senator Richard Burr - a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The I-Team investigation uncovered cases where troops survived combat only to die at home while undergoing treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder.

Stan and Shirley White told ABC11 that's how they lost their son Andrew.

"He died because of his PTSD, because of what he saw in the war zone. The medication is what killed him. We consider him as being a casualty of war," offered Stan White.
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Another non-combat death for Fort Riley

Riley soldier’s death ruled accidental
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 21, 2012
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Riley County police say a Fort Riley soldier’s death at his Manhattan home apparently was caused by an accidental drug overdose.

Twenty-four-year-old Derek H. Holgersen was found dead at his apartment on Friday.

Riley County police Capt. Kurt Moldrup announced Monday that preliminary autopsy reports indicate Holgersen died from an accidental drug overdose.

Moldrup says another tenant found Holgersen’s body.

A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame

A Veteran’s Death, the Nation’s Shame

Ashley Gilbertson/VII
Cherry DeBow, Ryan Yurchison’s mother, smelled a T-shirt her son cried into on the night he died

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 14, 2012

HERE’S a window into a tragedy within the American military: For every soldier killed on the battlefield this year, about 25 veterans are dying by their own hands.

An American soldier dies every day and a half, on average, in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. More than 6,500 veteran suicides are logged every year — more than the total number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq combined since those wars began.

These unnoticed killing fields are places like New Middletown, Ohio, where Cheryl DeBow raised two sons, Michael and Ryan Yurchison, and saw them depart for Iraq. Michael, then 22, signed up soon after the 9/11 attacks.

“I can’t just sit back and do nothing,” he told his mom. Two years later, Ryan followed his beloved older brother to the Army.

When Michael was discharged, DeBow picked him up at the airport — and was staggered. “When he got off the plane and I picked him up, it was like he was an empty shell,” she told me. “His body was shaking.” Michael began drinking and abusing drugs, his mother says, and he terrified her by buying the same kind of gun he had carried in Iraq. “He said he slept with his gun over there, and he needed it here,” she recalls.
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Suffolk program supports vets with PTSD

Suffolk program supports vets with PTSD
April 1, 2012
By PAUL LAROCCO

Photo credit: John Roca State Senator Lee M. Zeldin announcing the creation of the PFC Joseph Dwyer Program. (April 1, 2012)

As they battled post-traumatic stress disorder, Army veterans Joseph Dwyer and John Jennings had plenty of concerned family and friends.

Still, there were few people the Long Island natives could actually talk to -- few fellow war-scarred service members able to break through. Both died from accidental drug overdoses, and Sunday, their loved ones gathered at a Sayville American Legion post to back a new program creating support groups for veterans with PTSD.

"Hopefully people won't have to go through what Joe did," said Brian Dwyer, whose brother, originally of Mount Sinai, died in North Carolina in 2008. "The whole system has just been overwhelmed." As part of the state budget approved last week, Suffolk is one of four counties getting $200,000 to set up the Pfc. Joseph Dwyer Program, in which eight to 10 veterans diagnosed with PTSD or traumatic brain injury -- under a professional's supervision -- will help each other cope.

The idea for the program grew out of a series of meetings of the John P. Jennings Veterans' Advisory Panel, convened last year by Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), an Iraq War veteran. Jennings, 34, an Army National Guard lieutenant, returned from Iraq in 2005 and died at his Calverton home in January 2011. read more here

Marine died of "multi-drug toxicity"

This young Marine died in March but it was not until now that the family found out why? Were these drugs prescribed by the military?

Marine Corps: Sickels died of drug overdose

TimesReporter.com staff report
Posted Sep 02, 2011 @ 12:14 AM
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. —
The Marine Corps has ruled that Cpl. Shawn Sickels, 22, of New Philadelphia — found dead in his barracks at Camp LeJeune, N.C., on March 30 — died of an accidental drug overdose.

The listed cause of death was “multi-drug toxicity,” according to 2nd Lt. Oliver David, public affairs officer for the Second Marine Division. Sickels was a field artillery cannoneer with the 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.
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13 veterans died while waiting for VA care

In at least 13 cases, Murray said, veterans committed suicide or died from drug overdoses while waiting to receive help from the VA.

Senators tell VA to reduce veteran suicides


BY ROB HOTAKAINEN

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- With veterans now accounting for one of every five suicides in the nation, the Department of Veterans Affairs is under pressure from the courts and Congress to fix its mental health services in an attempt to curb the death toll.

"The suicide rate is out of control. It's epidemic proportions right now," said Paul Rieckhoff, the executive director of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "There are very few programs that are effective, and there's a serious lack of national awareness."

While the government keeps no official tally of veteran suicides, the VA said last year that veterans account for roughly 20 percent of the estimated 30,000 suicides annually in the United States.

The latest attack on the VA came two weeks ago from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which ordered a major overhaul of the agency. The court said that with an average of 18 veterans killing themselves each day, "the VA's unchecked incompetence has gone on long enough; no more veterans should be compelled to agonize or perish while the government fails to perform its obligations."

Suicides among active-duty troops are also a cause of concern: In April, 25 soldiers killed themselves, equal to about half the deaths in Afghanistan during the month.


Read more: Senators tell VA to reduce veteran suicides

Airman's death raises questions of treatment

A family's pain: Airman's death raises questions of treatment

by Chris Roberts \ El Paso Times
Posted: 02/19/2011 12:00:00 AM MST


In Iraq, Senior Airman Anthony Mena's Humvee had never been hit by a roadside bomb.

The El Paso native was responsible for mapping patrol routes and, as driver, avoiding ambushes and other potentially deadly situations. He had confidence he could protect his fellow airmen, members of an Air Force security unit serving in Baghdad.

By 2009, a few years after returning from that deployment, things had changed dramatically.
Numbed by the prescription drugs he was taking for pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, he did not trust himself to drive across Albuquerque for a counseling session.

In July of that year, as he slept, the 23-year-old simply stopped breathing.

The death was ruled accidental. A toxicology report showed he had nine different medications in his blood stream. There were no illegal drugs. There was no alcohol.

He had not taken more pills than the instructions on the bottles directed. In fact, he had been issued 29 prescriptions from the Albuquerque Veterans Administration hospital in the five months he had been treated there, said Willie Mena, the airman's father.

"VA had the oversight, and they failed miserably," Willie Mena said. "Something has to change, because this is not proper. This is not the right way."
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Airman's death raises questions of treatment

VA overdose problems still exist, report says

VA overdose problems still exist, report says

By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jul 10, 2009 12:05:24 EDT

WASHINGTON — Two years after an Iraq war veteran overdosed on medication at a Veterans Affairs facility, the problems blamed in his death have not been corrected at many of the VA’s residential treatment sites, a government study found.

The VA’s inspector general ordered the review as part of legislation passed to fix problems after the 2007 death of 27-year-old Justin Bailey in a Los Angeles residential facility.

Bailey, a Marine, had surgeries for a groin injury he sustained during the first part of the Iraq war and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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VA overdose problems still exist, report says

Soldier’s death at Knox leads to changes

Soldier’s death at Knox leads to changes

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday May 25, 2009 14:21:58 EDT

FORT KNOX, Ky. — Indiana National Guard Sgt. Gerald “G.J.” Cassidy, who served his country in Bosnia and Iraq, died alone and ignored in a barracks at Fort Knox from an accidental drug overdose.

His fate left a legacy that has changed the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers, Army officials say. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported Sunday that his death in September 2007 led to improvements at Fort Knox and all 45 Warrior Transition Units nationwide devoted to healing war wounds and getting soldiers back to military jobs or productive civilian lives.

“Any time you lose a soldier, you have to go back and examine what you’ve done wrong. It’s very apparent that mistakes were made with Sgt. Cassidy,” said Lt. Col. Gary Travis, battalion commander of the Fort Knox unit. “Cassidy’s incident occurred during a time of transition.”

Cassidy began experiencing migraine headaches after a roadside bomb exploded about 11 feet from his Humvee in Iraq in August 2006. With diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder and mild traumatic brain injury, Cassidy returned to the U.S. in April 2007 and was sent to Fort Knox, which launched its Warrior Transition Unit that June.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_SoldierMedical_052509w/

Campaign targets teen prescription drug abuse

Campaign targets teen prescription drug abuse
Story Highlights
One in five teens has admitted to abusing a prescription medication

Anti-drug campaign aims to educate teens and their parents of danger

"Not in My House" recommends parents take an inventory of meds



By Judy Fortin
CNN Medical Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A dozen old family photos were strewn across the table as Gary Neal picked them up one by one.


The attorney from Tulsa, Oklahoma, reminisced about his teenage son, Harrison, who died two years ago at the age of 17 after fatally mixing over-the-counter cold medication and someone else's prescription painkillers.

"There's nothing worse as a parent than to see your kid on a gurney being rolled out of your house ... and placed in a hearse," Neal, 61, lamented. "There's nothing worse than that."

Hoping to get the word out that in the wrong hands, prescription drugs can be deadly, Neal joined forces this year with the New York-based Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

"We have 20 percent of our teenagers, one in five, who have admitted to abusing a prescription medication," said Steve Pasierb, president of the organization. "We know that is based on their attitudes and beliefs that this is safer."
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Hospital error blamed for more infant overdoses

July 11, 2008, 5:15PM
Hospital error blamed for more infant overdoses


By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The case of 14 babies who received accidental overdoses while in intensive care has raised new questions about how a common blood-thinning medication could be given to infants repeatedly in the wrong dosage.

Unlike a previous case involving twins of actor Dennis Quaid, the Texas newborns got the overdose because of an error at the hospital pharmacy, not a labeling problem.

Quaid sued one of heparin's manufacturers last year after his children's overdose was traced to a hospital pharmacy worker who grabbed vials of the wrong dosage because the labels looked almost identical if turned a certain way.

In Corpus Christi, pharmacy workers at Christus Spohn Hospital South made what the hospital called a "mixing error." The two workers went on voluntary leave.

The heparin, which was 100 times stronger than recommended, was given to 14 infants in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit on July 4.
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Army probe finds failures in care at Fort Knox unit

LEFT BEHIND: Melissa Cassidy (left) and her mother-in-law, Kay McMullen, want changes in how wounded soldiers are cared for so Sgt. Gerald Cassidy's death while in the Army's care will not be in vain. Abbey, 5, and Isaac, 3, also survive their father, who was 31.

SPECIAL REPORT
A soldier's death, a family's fight
Army probe finds failures in care at Fort Knox unit
By Maureen Groppe
Star Washington Bureau
FORT KNOX, KY. -- When Sgt. Gerald Cassidy died alone from a prescription drug overdose at the Army's Warrior Transition Unit here, at a facility set up expressly to help wounded soldiers, he had more than 600 prescription pills in his room.

His body was found Sept. 21 in a chair in his room, after he had missed required morning and afternoon check-in for three days.

A sergeant was supposed to have taken attendance and tracked down anyone not present.

Instead, the sergeant ignored Cassidy's absence the first afternoon, missed the next daily check-in with car trouble and the following day marked Cassidy present even though he wasn't.

Cassidy was found dead more than eight hours after his wife, Melissa, began calling Fort Knox in an escalating panic on Sept. 21.

Finally, after she called at 6 p.m. and told a sergeant that she was getting ready to drive down from Westfield to look for her husband herself, the sergeant checked Cassidy's room.

Two hours later, Melissa was told over the telephone that her husband had been found dead in his small room. Four hours after that, about midnight, an Army chaplain arrived at Melissa's home.

The Army pronounced Cassidy's death an accidental overdose. The 31-year-old soldier took too many prescription drugs that, in combination, suppressed his respiratory system. In his system were methadone, the antidepressant citalopram, multiple opiates, a tranquilizer and a hypertension drug.

These and other details about how Cassidy lived his last few days and how he died were revealed recently by his wife and mother in an interview with The Indianapolis Star.

Cassidy's family also provided to The Star key documents from the Army's investigation of his death that had not previously been released and shared some notes Cassidy wrote at Fort Knox about his anxiety over loud noises and lack of sleep and his concern for the impact of his illness on his family.

The family says it is speaking out in hopes that greater public awareness will help other soldiers get better treatment.

The family found an ally in Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, who is calling for numerous changes in the way the military handles mental health services for wounded soldiers.

"The pain is never going to go away," said Cassidy's mother, Kay McMullen, Carmel. "You've got to do something then to change the outcome for other people."
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