93 Year Old WWII Veteran's VA Pension Claim Tied Up For 18 Months?

93-year-old veteran's pension application held-up for 18 months

WTVR 6 News
By: Bree Sison
Feb 11, 2020

The Problem Solvers reached out to at least a half dozen officials and advocacy groups on Jerry Horn’s behalf. Congressman Ben Cline called Bob Horn in late January to say his office had secured a favorable outcome in the case. The next day, Bob received letters from other federal officials and the VA stating the pension had been denied.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- The family of a 93-year-old veteran in Charlottesville cannot understand why the Veterans Administration has taken more than 18 months to approve a pension application.

“It’s very frustrating. He deserves this. He earned it,” Dr. Bob Horn tells the Problem Solvers.

Like many members of the Greatest Generation, Bob’s father Jerome Horn did not talk about his experience serving in the United States Army during World War II.
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Post Traumatic Stress and Dementia

Service and Sacrifice

WPSD NBC 6 News
Jennifer Horbelt, Michael Bradford
Feb 5, 2020

In patients like JJ, there's no way to definitively say PTSD is the cause, but researchers are starting to look for that link between mental health and the decline of brain function. In 2010, a National Center for Biotechnology Information study found veterans with PTSD were at a nearly two-fold higher risk of developing dementia. In 2018, another NCBI study went even further: "While causality cannot be determined, it is likely that PTSD and depressive disorders are related to an increased risk of dementia in military veterans."

PADUCAH — Trauma changes the brain. Studies show that the impacts of physical and mental trauma are measurable. In more recent years, research is starting to examine the long-term effects of post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Millions of veterans and their loved ones are personally invested in those results.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 11-20% of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans live with PTSD. For Gulf War veterans, it's 12%. For Vietnam veterans, 30% brought PTSD home with them when their tour of duty ended.

James "JJ" Jernigan is one of them. In 2018, he was proudly taking part in the arrival of The Wall That Heals. In early January 2020, JJ was one of several veterans who received a Quilt of Valor in Paducah. JJ's wife, Sandy, spoke with us on camera that day. Click here to watch that story. JJ couldn't, because for the past year dementia has been stealing his memories and, many times, his ability to communicate. It's a price he may now be paying for his Service and Sacrifice.
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But yet again, research on this connection was done a long time ago.

Vets with post-traumatic stress are at high risk of dementia, from USA Today 2009

Veterans with PTSD at greater risk for dementia on Medical Net 2010

Florida Today wrote about it in 2013 PTSD:Wars's lingering grip intensifies with dementia

You are getting the idea, but one of the most troubling ones was PTSD Meds May Increase Dementia Risk in 2017...but no sign any of these studies changed much at all considering what you just read!

PTSD Meds May Increase Dementia Risk?

With all this "awareness" going on, most do not know this part, 

A deeper look at PTSDPost traumatic stress disorder encapsulates multiple symptoms related to a traumatic event. The National Institute of Mental Health noted that PTSD can be both acute and chronic. However, the NIMH noted that individuals must have symptoms including flashbacks of a traumatic event, avoidance and mood changes for up to one month for it to be identified as PTSD. When these symptoms last for a shorter amount of time, it can be acute stress disorder.

but now you do and it may help understand why some folks claim they were "cured." Reminder, if the symptoms after traumatic events do not subside or go away, get professional help as soon as possible AND HEAL.


How PTSD medication can increase the risk of dementia Medication may increase the likelihood of dementia in older patients.
by Interim HealthCare
Published: Monday, May 15, 2017

A new study from the American Geriatrics Society may have identified another risk factor that could increase the likelihood of dementia. Individuals taking medication to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder could increase their risk for dementia later in life.

A closer look at the study
Researchers looked at over 3 million participants aged 56 and older. The study focused on individuals working with veterans. According to NPR, there continues to be a stigma for individuals who have seen combat seeking out treatment for PTSD. However, the stigma of seeking out treatment for PTSD is beginning to dissipate.

The study tracked patients since 2003 over nine years. The results found that individuals taking medication to cope with PTSD, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antidepressants, were more likely to suffer from dementia later in life than individuals who didn't take these medications. While researchers noted the connection between these medications and dementia, they acknowledge that more research is needed to learn about the relationship.
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70 Year Old Veteran Died From Choking on Trash Bag

Sapulpa veteran died with 2-foot trash bag in his throat at state care home, new autopsy report says

Sapulpa man died from choking on a trash bag while in the care of state veterans center in Talihina, report shows

• By Andrea Eger Tulsa World

A new report from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office confirms that a Sapulpa man died from choking on a trash bag while in the care of a state nursing home for veterans.

Leonard Smith, 70, was an advanced-dementia patient living in a locked-down special-needs unit at the Oklahoma Veterans Center in Talihina when he choked to death Jan. 31 after being given food, fluids and medication. After he died, a medical provider found that he had a plastic bag lodged deep in his throat.

In its final report on the death, the medical examiner determined Smith’s probable cause of death was asphyxia due to choking on a foreign body and the manner of his death was accidental.

The ME’s report revealed that included with items sent with Smith’s body to be examined was what was found in his throat: “a twisted clear trash bag covered in pink vomitus. The trash bag is intact and measures 24 (inches) in length and 1 (inch) in width when twisted. When the trash bag is untwisted, it measures 5 (inches) in width.”

Christine Cornwell, a Tulsa County resident and Smith’s niece, whom he had entrusted with his power of attorney, said the ME’s report may close a chapter in Smith’s death but not her and other relatives’ anguish over the circumstances.

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Florida mental health system is completely ill-equipped to handle this crisis

For Forgotten Soldier, a march through mental health gauntlet
Miami Herald
BY CARLI TEPROFF-CTEPROFF
10/25/2014

“The Forgotten Soldier is just the beginning of the dementia avalanche that is coming our way,” the public defenders wrote. “The Florida mental health system is completely ill-equipped to handle this crisis.”

They call him the Forgotten Soldier — although actually he served in the Marines.

At 59, his lawyers say, he suffers from dementia and traumatic brain injuries and can barely talk, walk or take care of himself. But for years he became a human shuttlecock, batted to and fro between jail and state hospitals and mental health facilities.

Attorneys in the Broward Public Defender’s Office say the man — whose advocates ask that he not be identified — personifies the way the United States is ill-serving a vulnerable population, the growing ranks of individuals, many of them veterans, coping with early-onset dementia. They say it is particularly shocking that it happened in Broward, a county that prides itself on its progressiveness, and pioneered the nation’s first felony mental health court.

“This is a five-alarm alert to the community that says your mother and father are not safe,” said Howard Finkelstein, Broward’s elected public defender.

Frustrated and discouraged by his plight, Chief Assistant Public Defender Owen McNamee and Assistant Public Defender Douglas Brawley — also the man’s attorney — wrote a letter outlining his trek through the system. It was sent to the Department of Children & Families, to judges and to county commissioners in hopes that more money will be fed into the system to ensure caring treatment of those with similar needs.
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WWII Veteran attacked at Oklahoma Veterans Center

Oklahoma veteran attacked in Claremore Center
KFOR News 4
BY ALI MEYER
JULY 25, 2014

CLAREMORE, Okla. – There are more than 300,000 veterans in Oklahoma, and seven state-run facilities for those vets in their golden years.

The family of one veteran recently contacted NewsChannel 4 after a horrific situation at the vet center in Claremore, Oklahoma.

Seaman First Class Richard Morrison enlisted in the Navy when he was just 15 years old.

He fought World War II in the Pacific and today fights a different battle; dementia.

His family noticed about a year and a half ago that he was showing signs of Alzheimer’s and needed help.

Morrison’s family tried live-in nursing care for almost two years.

They eventually decided his best option was the Claremore Veterans’ Center.

He had been here just five weeks when he was attacked by another resident in the dementia wing.

Richard Morrison’s case is just the latest in a string of complaints out of the Claremore Veterans’ Center in recent years. In fact, conditions were so bad at Claremore a few years ago the state legislature asked the State Health Department to step in. The state now conducts regular, unannounced visits to all the vet centers around the state.
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PTSD: War's lingering grip intensifies with dementia

PTSD: War's lingering grip intensifies with dementia
Florida Today
Written by
Dr. Pamela Tronetti

When my kids were small, we lived near the Norristown (Pa.) State Mental Hospital. Founded in 1880, it housed dozens of buildings, including a ward for Civil War veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Back then it was called “soldier’s heart,” and described the veteran’s erratic behavior and attitude. In World War I, it was called shell shock. And World War II brought the term combat fatigue.

In our practice, we see a late-life variant of PTSD. Although we have a few surviving World War II vets, most have fought in Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts.

They lived their lives before our society encouraged public admission of trauma, fear and anxiety. They soldiered on.

Oh, maybe they tied one on and broke down after sharing a few war stories with their buddies. But mostly they kept it under wraps.

Until they developed dementia.

In dementia, the day-to-day is lost, but memories of times past float unbidden to the surface.
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Veterans with PTSD at greater risk for dementia

Veterans with PTSD at greater risk for dementia
31. August 2010 07:05

More Study Needed to Determine Why Veterans with PTSD Are More at Risk Than Others

Results of a study reported in the September issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggest that Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a greater risk for dementia than Veterans without PTSD, even those who suffered traumatic injuries during combat.

Exposure to life threatening events, like war, can cause PTSD, and there are high rates among veterans. PSTD includes symptoms such as avoiding things or people that remind a person of the trauma, nightmares, difficulty with sleep, and mood problems.

"We found Veterans with PTSD had twice the chance for later being diagnosed with dementia than Veterans without PTSD," said Mark Kunik, M.D., M.P.H., a psychiatrist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Texas, USA, and senior author of the article. "Although we cannot at this time determine the cause for this increased risk, it is essential to determine whether the risk of dementia can be reduced by effectively treating PTSD. This could have enormous implications for Veterans now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan."
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Veterans with PTSD at greater risk for dementia

Vets with post-traumatic stress are at high risk of dementia

Vets with post-traumatic stress are at high risk of dementia
By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY
Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia compared with veterans who don't have the disorder, a study reports today.

Using data from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Patient Care Database, scientists from the University of California-San Francisco analyzed files of 181,093 veterans ages 55 and older without dementia from 1997 to 2000. The mean age at the start of the study was 68, and 97% were male.


DRINKING:
Repeated deployments raise soldiers' stress and enrollment in alcohol treatment.

During the follow-up period from 2001 to 2007, the researchers learned that 53,155 veterans were diagnosed with dementia or cognitive impairment. Veterans who had post-traumatic stress developed dementia at a rate of 10.6% over seven years, while those who didn't have the disorder had a rate of 6.6%, the researchers reported.
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Vets with post-traumatic stress are at high risk of dementia