Blumenthal Wants "Full and immediate investigation" on VA Death?

Is this yet one more case of political grandstanding or what? A veteran entered an inpatient treatment program at the VA. According to reports, he got his hands on illegal drugs, left the grounds and later died. Blumenthal is all a fluster before anyone has investigated anything all hot under the collar to point his finger at the VA.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is demanding a “full and immediate investigation”

"Veteran Zachary Greenough, who apparently suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), left the residential inpatient facility and later died of an apparent drug overdose, according to Sen. Blumenthal."

Unfortunately this type of thing has been going on for decades when veterans try to get help, sometimes reluctantly, and don't get what they need to heal. The VA programs work for a lot of veterans but not all of them. Seems Blumenthal is blaming the VA for the wrong reason and certainly not blaming members of Congress at all even though they have jurisdiction over what the VA does and does not do.

"“My staff has received information that Mr. Greenough obtained illegal drugs while living in a residential inpatient setting at the West Haven Campus,” said Sen. Blumethal in the letter. “The very egregious factual allegations concerning this tragic death, while as yet unconfirmed, raise serious questions about access to drugs and other broader issues that may implicate policies and procedures at the VA."

Wow, sounds like he's really serious.  That is until we remember it is far from new and has not improved even after all these years.

2014
IG: Vet overdosed while in VA rehab center

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan died of a heroin and cocaine overdose last year while receiving treatment at a Miami Veterans Affairs residential treatment facility, according to a VA inspector general report released Friday.

The veteran, who was in his 20s, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological conditions as well as traumatic brain injury. He had a history of drug abuse while in the Miami VA Medical Center substance abuse residential rehabilitation program and had previously lost leave privileges for continued use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

But according to the IG report, the medical facility staff failed to check him for contraband after he had been allowed to leave for an afternoon and also failed to monitor the facility closely, increasing the potential for visitors to bring in banned substances or for patients to leave to get them.

2013
Lopatcong Township veteran's family calls for better PTSD treatment after his death

The 26-year-old Army infantryman told his mother, Laura Arace, that he had seen people die. And while neither explosives nor the enemy claimed his life, an uphill battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction did, his mother said.

He died at home Sunday of what his family suspects was a drug overdose. Arace was hospitalized for rehab and PTSD therapy more than 30 times, Laura Arace said.

“When they released him, he would say, ‘I can’t take it, because my head won’t shut up,'” she said. “The system is broken. Anybody that knew him knew he was on a mission to die,” she said, surrounded by loved ones in her Lopatcong Township home.

Arace was so determined to join the Army, he took a metal rod out of his arm himself so he could pass the entrance test, according to his mother. Ever since parents of some of his high school friends died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he wanted to serve, she said.

But he struggled to readjust to civilian life.

Deaths at Atlanta VA Hospital Prompt Scrutiny

By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY
Associated Press
ATLANTA May 25, 2013 (AP)

One patient with a history of substance abuse and suicidal thoughts was left alone in a waiting room inside the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where he obtained drugs from a hospital visitor and later died of an overdose.

Another patient wandered the 26-acre campus for hours, picking up his prescriptions from an outpatient pharmacy and injecting himself with testosterone before returning voluntarily to his room.

The cases at the Atlanta VA Medical Center are the latest in a string of problems at Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide, prompting outrage from elected officials and congressional scrutiny of what is the largest integrated health care system in the country with nearly 300,000 employees.

Pennsylvania veteran awarded $3.7 M in suit against VA

Judge Munley wasn't convinced. "The testimony at trial revealed that plaintiff was initially a good patient and actively seeking help from the VA. The VA did not provide the help and medical treatment needed by the plaintiff, and as a result, plaintiff began self-medicating with alcohol and illegal drugs," he said.

The judge awarded Mr. Laskowski $214,582 for past lost earnings; $2.1 million for future lost earnings; $500,000 for past noneconomic damages, including pain and suffering, embarrassment and humiliation and loss of the ability to enjoy the pleasures of life; and $700,000 for future noneconomic damages.

He awarded Mr. Laskowski's wife, Marisol Laskowski, $140,615 for loss of consortium.

2012
Prescription drug abuse, overdoses haunt veterans seeking relief from physical, mental pain

He talked about quitting. Later that summer, after Pilgrim broke his finger in a pickup football game at Fort Sill, Okla., an Army doctor prescribed OxyContin for the pain. Use of the powerful narcotic baffled his mother: “You gave him this stuff for a broken finger?”

Getting refills was easy, she added, and it wasn’t long before Pilgrim began abusing the painkiller. “He found out very quickly he could deal with his mental health symptoms with the drugs,” Judy said.

Pilgrim ended up going AWOL four times; eventually, he was discharged from the Army. Over the next two years, he shuttled in and out of various treatment centers.

In August 2007, a month into an inpatient treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder in Waco, Pilgrim was kicked out for fighting. Despite his history of drug abuse, he was sent home with a prescription for hydrocodone, another opiate painkiller.

Two days later, on Aug. 18, six days before his 27th birthday, his body was discovered in a room at the Relax Inn, a single-story, stucco motel within sight of the high school stadium where he’d played football. The autopsy showed a lethal level of hydrocodone and methadone. His death was ruled accidental.

2011
Settlement Reached In Suit Against VA Over Iraq War Veteran’s Death

A settlement has been reached in a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against a local VA hospital over the death of an Iraq war veteran who suffered from PTSD. Reporter: Paul J. Gately

WACO (November 17, 2011)-A federal judge in Waco has accepted an agreed settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of an Iraq war veteran, but the details of the settlement were not released.

The suit, filed by Randy and Judy Pilgrim, of Daingerfield, sought more than $75,000 in damages in the interest of their grandson from the U.S. government and the VA Medical Center in Waco in the August 2007 death of their son, Lance.

A copy of the lawsuit obtained by News 10 says Lance Pilgrim was to be treated at the V.A. Medical Center in Waco for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that his parents say was brought on by his U.S. Army service in Iraq.

Specifically the suit says Lance Pilgrim returned from combat with severe depression, was suicidal and addicted to several drugs.

You can follow VA investigations here. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General

But it wasn't just happening at the VA.

2010

Family angered by Marine's overdose death at naval hospital
By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 29, 2010
PORTSMOUTH

Lance Cpl. Ezequiel Freire got out of Afghanistan alive, but a stateside hospital stay proved fatal.

The 20-year-old Marine's death from a prescription drug overdose at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center has left his family reeling, outraged and frustrated by what they see as an absence of accountability for those charged with his care.

Freire died of a toxic cocktail of powerful narcotics and sedatives as he was awaiting chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The case underscores the dangers inherent in the many potent painkillers on the market today, which have helped drive an alarming rise in overdoses.

Overdose deaths from prescription drugs now exceed those from illegal drugs.

It was happening in the Army as well.

2008
Army 3 drug overdose deaths and 4 suicides in Warrior Transition Unit

The Army said officials had determined that among those troops there have been 11 deaths that were not due to natural causes between June and Feb. 5.

That included four suicides, three accidental overdoses of prescribed medications, three deaths still under investigation and one motor vehicle accident, the Army said.

“Army medical and safety professionals continue to remind soldiers and their families of the importance of prescription-drug safety precautions, including following the printed directions and information for each medicine,” the Army said of the overdoses in a statement Thursday.

Noting the death of actor Heath Ledger, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker last week first disclosed the issue of drug overdoses in the 35 special transition units, which care for more than 9,500 soldiers.

There are even more but while we remember what has been going on while members of Congress get their names in the press for paying attention, it seems the press isn't interested in paying attention to the lack of results.

Soldier shares PTSD struggle to save others "Frozen in War"

Soldier shares PTSD struggle to save others
KHOU Texas
by JADE MINGUS / KVUE News
Photojournalist Dennis Thomas
Posted on May 26, 2014

AUSTIN -- A soldier living in Lockhart is using his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder to give other service members hope through a documentary called "Frozen in War."

Andrew O'Brien tried to kill himself when he returned home from Iraq by overdosing in 2010.

"The reason I attempted suicide was I felt alone, I felt weak for feeling the way I did," said O'Brien.

O'Brien says his best therapy is sharing his story, and he's doing it at military installations across the country.

"I’ll speak to a crowd of 100 soldiers and out of that 100, ten will come up and tell me their suicide attempt story,' said O'Brien.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

Director Estephania LeBaron has followed O'Brien around the country for the past year, filming his journey of helping others. She has completed 20 minutes of the "Frozen in War" documentary and hopes to finish it this year. The goal is to screen it in theaters across the country and start a conversation.

"It is so rewarding for me," said LeBaron. "This helps the conversation begin."
read more here

Iraq Veteran's Mom Suffers After Son Died In VA Miami Rehab

A Mother’s Guilt And A Veteran’s Unexpected Death
CBS Miami
Jim DeFede
April 28, 2014

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Early one morning last year, Mary Zielinski received a call from the VA hospital in Miami telling her that her son was dead.

“I was in such shock that I gave him the phone,” she recounts motioning toward her boyfriend, Agim Banushi. “And he was like, `Who is it?’ And I said, `It’s the VA calling. They’re telling me that Nick’s passed away.’”

Nicholas Cutter survived fourteen months in Iraq, yet he couldn’t survive the rehab center designed to help him. No one told her at the time, but Cutter died of a cocaine overdose.

Zielinski had pushed for Cutter to go to the residential rehab program. When he came back from Iraq in 2010, Cutter was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He had trouble being around people; was angry and easily agitated.

He had been attending counseling sessions at the VA center near his home in West Palm Beach, where the doctors had him on more than 20 different medications, according Zielinski and Banushi.

“He was taking upwards of 50 pills a day,” Banushi said.

“These are some of his medications,” Zielinski said, flipping through a large binder.

The pills, however, weren’t helping. His nightmares grew. Afraid to sleep he began using cocaine to stay awake at night. His doctors in West Palm suggested he come here to the residential drug program in Miami – it was supposed to be one of the best. But he didn’t want to go and leave his mother behind.

Zielinski recalled how she talked him into going.

“I specifically told him, `Do you trust me honey?’ And he said, `Yes mom I trust you.’ And I said. `This program will help you.
read more here

Afghanistan Veteran with PTSD died of overdose at Miami VA Rehab

IG: Vet overdosed while in VA rehab center
Army Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
March 29, 2014

A veteran of the war in Afghanistan died of a heroin and cocaine overdose last year while receiving treatment at a Miami Veterans Affairs residential treatment facility, according to a VA inspector general report released Friday.

The veteran, who was in his 20s, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological conditions as well as traumatic brain injury. He had a history of drug abuse while in the Miami VA Medical Center substance abuse residential rehabilitation program and had previously lost leave privileges for continued use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

But according to the IG report, the medical facility staff failed to check him for contraband after he had been allowed to leave for an afternoon and also failed to monitor the facility closely, increasing the potential for visitors to bring in banned substances or for patients to leave to get them.

According the the IG:

■The security surveillance camera for the program did not work at the time the patient died and still didn’t work three months later when the IG team visited.

■A staff member was not present at all times as required.

■Staff often stayed in a back room with limited view of the unit and no view of the entrances or exits.
read more here

Veteran's family calls for better PTSD treatment after his death

Lopatcong Township veteran's family calls for better PTSD treatment after his death
Express Times
Sarah Peters
December 7, 2013

Laura Arace looks over scrapbooks of Nick Arace's military service.

Ever since Lopatcong Township resident Nick Arace came back from Iraq, he was haunted by what he saw there.

The 26-year-old Army infantryman told his mother, Laura Arace, that he had seen people die. And while neither explosives nor the enemy claimed his life, an uphill battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction did, his mother said.

He died at home Sunday of what his family suspects was a drug overdose. Arace was hospitalized for rehab and PTSD therapy more than 30 times, Laura Arace said.

“When they released him, he would say, ‘I can’t take it, because my head won’t shut up,'” she said. “The system is broken. Anybody that knew him knew he was on a mission to die,” she said, surrounded by loved ones in her Lopatcong Township home.

Arace was so determined to join the Army, he took a metal rod out of his arm himself so he could pass the entrance test, according to his mother. Ever since parents of some of his high school friends died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he wanted to serve, she said.

But he struggled to readjust to civilian life.
read more here

VA’s opiate overload feeds veterans’ addictions, overdose deaths

VA’s opiate overload feeds veterans’ addictions, overdose deaths
Aaron Glantz
CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
September 30, 2013

Before dawn, a government van picked up paratrooper Jeffrey Waggoner for the five-hour drive to a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in southern Oregon. His orders: detox from a brutal addiction to painkillers.

He had only the clothes on his back, his watch, an MP3 player and a two-page pain contract the Army made him sign, a promise to get clean.

But instead of keeping Waggoner away from his vice, medical records show the VA hospital in Roseburg kept him so doped up that he could barely stay awake. Then, inexplicably, the VA released him for the weekend with a cocktail of 19 prescription medications, including 12 tablets of highly addictive oxycodone.

Three hours later, Waggoner, 32, was dead of a drug overdose, slumped in a heap in front of his room at the Sleep Inn motel.

“As a parent, you’d want to know how this happened to your child,” said his father, Greg Waggoner. “You send your child to a hospital to get well, not to die.”

Jeffrey Waggoner’s end and easy access to the narcotics that killed him have become tragically common, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
read more here

Atlanta VA hospital blamed for visitor delivering drugs?

If you read Wounded Times you know there are huge problems along with plenty of things that we should be angry about. This time the situations are not about what the VA did but about what patients did.

Deaths at Atlanta VA Hospital Prompt Scrutiny
By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY
Associated Press
ATLANTA May 25, 2013 (AP)

One patient with a history of substance abuse and suicidal thoughts was left alone in a waiting room inside the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where he obtained drugs from a hospital visitor and later died of an overdose.

Another patient wandered the 26-acre campus for hours, picking up his prescriptions from an outpatient pharmacy and injecting himself with testosterone before returning voluntarily to his room.

The cases at the Atlanta VA Medical Center are the latest in a string of problems at Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide, prompting outrage from elected officials and congressional scrutiny of what is the largest integrated health care system in the country with nearly 300,000 employees.
read more here

Should the patients have been locked up? No and there is only so much monitoring they can do otherwise but when you consider how the Congress covered their eyes when two wars were being fought yet they refused to force any accountability, it is a bit too late to start blaming the VA for something they didn't do.

Deal reached in malpractice lawsuit agains VA over suicide

Deal is reached in lawsuit over veteran's death
By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 20, 2013
NORFOLK

Darla Grese can finally stop fighting for her sister.

Kelli Grese - a Navy veteran like her twin sister - killed herself on Veterans Day in 2010. She overdosed on Seroquel, an antipsychotic medication that was part of a cocktail of drugs prescribed by doctors at the Hampton Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Darla Grese, of Virginia Beach, filed a malpractice suit against the medical center, seeking $5 million. It was scheduled for trial in Norfolk in April. On Tuesday, Grese and the U.S. government reached a settlement, according to her lawyer, Bob Haddad: If a judge approves the deal, the government will pay Grese $100,000.

Grese hopes publicity about the suit will draw more attention to the treatment of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, both of which her sister battled.

In a single year, Grese said in an interview, doctors at the Hampton facility prescribed 5,370 pills of Klonopin, used to treat anxiety disorders, for her sister.
read more here

It sucks to be right when they are still dead

I've been called a lot of things in all these years. One of them is "stupid" when I said that we will never know the real numbers connected to military suicides. Time and time again, I point out that when we read numbers, as bad as they may seem, they are only a part of the real numbers of veterans coming home. Back home where it is actually more dangerous for them than it was in combat. Families left in shock, end up blaming themselves.

While this report vindicates what I've been saying all these years, it leaves me with great sadness to have been proven right again. It sucks to be right when they are still dead.

Report: Texas vets dying young at alarming rate
Austin American-Statesman
Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which serves nearly half of recent veterans, does not regularly track individual causes of death, a shortcoming that critics say prevents it from understanding the scope of the problems facing those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — They survived the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But they did not survive the homecoming.

A six-month investigation by the Austin American-Statesman of Texas' Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who died after leaving the military found that an alarmingly high percentage died from prescription drug overdoses, toxic drug combinations, suicide and single-car crashes — a largely unseen pattern of early death that federal authorities are failing to adequately track.

The newspaper obtained autopsies, toxicology reports, inquests and accident reports from more than 50 agencies throughout Texas to analyze the causes of death for 266 Texas veterans who served in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and were receiving VA benefits when they died.

The newspaper began with 345 fragmentary, nameless records provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Reporters used obituaries, widely scattered public records and interviews with veterans' families and friends to identify the dead, determine causes of death and reveal a phenomenon that has largely been hidden from public view.

The investigation found that:

— More than one in three died from a drug overdose, a fatal combination of drugs, or suicide. Their median age at death was 28.

— Nearly one in five died in a motor vehicle crash.

— Among those with a primary diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, the numbers are even more disturbing: 80 percent died of overdose, suicide or a single vehicle crash. Only two of the 46 Texas veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts with a PTSD diagnosis died of natural causes, according to the analysis.

— The 345 Texas veterans identified by the VA as having died since coming home is equal to nearly two-thirds of the state's casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that only includes veterans who have sought VA benefits, meaning the total number of deaths is likely much larger.

Mother turns pain into drive to help others fight Combat PTSD

Mother turns pain into drive to help others
Bolstered by her faith, Leslie Mayne vowed to fight back against PTSD. In her son’s honor, she founded the Race for a Soldier half marathon in Gig Harbor last fall. The second running of the race is Sept. 23 and other cities are considering launching their own versions.
CRAIG HILL; STAFF WRITER
Published: Sept. 15, 2012

When Leslie Mayne got the call that changed her life, she says it felt like she was pushed off a cliff.

It was March 7, 2009, the day after her son, Pvt. First Class Kyle Farr, was released from Maryland’s Perry Point Veteran’s Hospital after receiving treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. The news she received dropped her to her knees.

Her son, 27, had overmedicated and was found dead in a Baltimore hotel room.

“Losing a child hurts so bad it should kill you,” Mayne said.

It’s a pain she doesn’t want anybody else to feel.

Bolstered by her faith, Mayne vowed to fight back against PTSD. In her son’s honor, she founded the Race for a Soldier half marathon in Gig Harbor last fall. The second running of the race is Sept. 23 and other cities are considering launching their own versions.

More than 1,400 runners and 3,000 spectators attended last year’s event raising more than $44,000. Organizers hope for 2,000 runners this year with troops doing a simultaneous run in Afghanistan.
read more here

Settlement Reached In Suit Against VA Over Iraq War Veteran’s Death

Settlement Reached In Suit Against VA Over Iraq War Veteran’s Death
A settlement has been reached in a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against a local VA hospital over the death of an Iraq war veteran who suffered from PTSD.
Reporter: Paul J. Gately

WACO (November 17, 2011)-A federal judge in Waco has accepted an agreed settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of an Iraq war veteran, but the details of the settlement were not released.

The suit, filed by Randy and Judy Pilgrim, of Daingerfield, sought more than $75,000 in damages in the interest of their grandson from the U.S. government and the VA Medical Center in Waco in the August 2007 death of their son, Lance.


A copy of the lawsuit obtained by News 10 says Lance Pilgrim was to be treated at the V.A. Medical Center in Waco for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that his parents say was brought on by his U.S. Army service in Iraq.

Specifically the suit says Lance Pilgrim returned from combat with severe depression, was suicidal and addicted to several drugs.
read more here

Lance Cpl. Ezequiel Freire got out of Afghanistan alive but died of overdose at Portsmouth Naval

A 20 year old Marine faces combat, survives, returns home with PTSD and cancer, then dies of an overdose while in the hospital. There is not much this story lacks. Feres Doctrine will keep the family from filling a malpractice suit. There won't really be accountability for the fact he was in the hospital when this happened. Cancer in a 20 year old Marine and the fact that there are toxic exposures reported for years leading to cancer including the burn pits. Contaminated water and soil add to this. Their stories have been told but more are hidden. Their families suffer without justice, without answers but above all, without change for the sake of those who come after their loved one. They have prepared for the fact a bullet or bomb could end their lives but who can prepare for the government to finish what the enemy could not do?

Family angered by Marine's overdose death at naval hospital

By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 29, 2010
PORTSMOUTH

Lance Cpl. Ezequiel Freire got out of Afghanistan alive, but a stateside hospital stay proved fatal.

The 20-year-old Marine's death from a prescription drug overdose at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center has left his family reeling, outraged and frustrated by what they see as an absence of accountability for those charged with his care.

Freire died of a toxic cocktail of powerful narcotics and sedatives as he was awaiting chemotherapy treatment for cancer. The case underscores the dangers inherent in the many potent painkillers on the market today, which have helped drive an alarming rise in overdoses.

Overdose deaths from prescription drugs now exceed those from illegal drugs.

The Freire case also leaves unanswered the question of what, if any, consequences there were for the doctors involved in his care.

There were ample warnings available on the drug labels and in the medical literature about the risks of the multidrug therapy that was used in Freire's case.

But there is no record of any public disciplinary action against any of the doctors by the Virginia Board of Medicine.

A hospital official said the case has prompted several ongoing investigations that have resulted in corrective actions.

The final insult, in the eyes of Freire's family members, is that they have no legal recourse against his caregivers. That's because of a 60-year-old legal precedent known as the Feres Doctrine, which prohibits lawsuits when military service members are injured or killed by negligence.

"We trusted them, and they killed him," said Federico Freire, the dead man's older brother and a fellow Marine. "It just sickens me."

The Freire family moved to Bradenton, Fla., from their native Argentina when Federico was 10 and Ezequiel was 4.

Back at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

There was something else wrong, too. Increasingly, he was troubled by chest pains.

His sister had noticed it over Christmas. When she joked with him, he'd say "Julie, stop making me laugh. My heart hurts."

X-rays at the base clinic revealed a large mass in his chest. He was taken by ambulance to the Portsmouth naval hospital, where a biopsy led doctors to suspect Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of cancer.
read more here
Family angered by Marine's overdose death at naval hospital

Dying In Their Sleep: The Invisible Plague Attacking U.S. Soldiers

Dying In Their Sleep: The Invisible Plague Attacking U.S. Soldiers

Cilla McCain
Author, Murder in Baker Company
Posted: June 23, 2010 05:42 PM

While doing research for the book Murder In Baker Company, I came to know many military family members from the support group "Home of the Brave." The group's goal is to help one another gain information and justice in the noncombat related deaths of their loved ones. According to the Department of Defense nearly 1 out of 4 fatalities in the military are noncombat related.

Stan and Shirley White of West Virginia represent one of the "Home of the Brave" families. Three of their four children have served in the armed forces. Two have died because of their time in war. On September 26, 2005, their son Robert, an Army Staff Sergeant, was killed in a rocket attack in Afghanistan. On February 12, 2008, their youngest son, 23 year-old Marine Corporal Andrew White died in his sleep after being treated for PTSD with lethal prescription drugs.

Struggling with PTSD compounded by grief over the death of his brother, Andrew sought help from VA doctors. Their first line of defense was to prescribe him 20 mg. of Paxil, 4 mg of Klonopin and 50 mg of Seroquel. These medications helped at first, but later proved ineffective. Instead of changing the course of treatment, the doctors responded by continually increasing his dosage until the Seroquel alone reached a whopping 1600 mg per day. Within weeks of Andrew's death, three more young West Virginia veterans died while being treated for PTSD with the same drugs, prompting Stan and Shirley White to begin a mission to find out what the deaths have in common.
read more here
Dying In Their Sleep

Accidental overdoses alarm military officials

Short term memory loss plays a big part in this. Often they can't remember if they took their medication or not. They need to use reminders, like pill separators, so they will not think they forgot to take their pills and then take double the amount.

Alcohol is a huge no-no! Drinking will change how the medications work on the brain. Take mind focused drugs, don't drink. Simple as that. Plus the other thing is that when you stop drinking, the medications work better. Is having a lot of beer with the guys worth the price your healing pays? You are trying to not be depressed but alcohol adds to it.

Added to these warnings is the one you cannot control and that is being given drugs that work against the others. Be pro-active and check the warning signs of all medications you are on and talk to your doctor. Do not adjust them on your own. You have to talk to your doctor first.

The Army deaths have shocked that service’s medical community and prompted an internal review. But despite a “safety stand down” in January 2009, the number of fatalities continued to rise last year — to 15 in 2009, up from 11 the year before. Meanwhile the total number of soldiers assigned to the 29 WTUs nationwide dropped from about 12,000 to about 9,000.

Accidental overdoses alarm military officials

By Andrew Tilghman and Brendan McGarry - Staff writers
Posted : Sunday Jun 6, 2010 18:22:42 EDT

Prescription drug cocktails have lead to at least 32 accidental overdoses among Marines and soldiers since 2007, bringing military medical practices for treating physical and psychiatric problems under scrutiny.

At least 30 soldiers and two Marines overdosed while under the care of Army Warrior Transition Units or the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment, created three years ago to tightly focus care and attention on troops suffering from injuries as a result of combat.

Most of the troops had been prescribed “drug cocktails,” combinations of drugs including painkillers, sleeping pills, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, interviews and records show. In all cases, suicide was ruled out.

Army officials say the deaths are often complicated by troops mixing medications with alcohol, taking their own medications incorrectly or without a prescription.
go here for more

Accidental overdoses alarm military officials

Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando, Florida

Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando, Florida
Willoughby Mariano Sentinel Staff Writer
4:49 PM EDT, July 1, 2009
Deadly overdoses of anti- anxiety drugs and painkillers spiked in the Orlando area and across the state last year, experts said, evidence of the growing threat posed by the abuse of legal prescription drugs.

And in what experts say is a major shift, Florida deaths by anti-anxiety drugs, painkillers and a heroin treatment drug surpassed those from cocaine in 2008, according to a report released this week by a commission of Florida medical examiners. Cocaine caused the most deaths in 2007.

In Orlando and Osceola counties alone, deaths caused by an anti-anxiety drug often sold as Xanax killed 50 people, a jump of 61 percent.

"Not a week goes by, and sometimes, not a day goes by, without a [prescription drug] case," said Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the Orange-Osceola office's medical examiner. "It's unbelievable."

Anti-anxiety drugs were present in 130 bodies examined by the office, a 132 percent increase

go here for more
Prescription drug overdoses spike in Orlando

Soldier sent back to Iraq with TBI and PTSD, died from overdose

Fort Carson soldier died of drug overdose
Staff Sgt. Chad Barrett had been sent on a third tour of duty in Iraq despite a brain injury and stress disorder.
By Erin Emery
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 04/08/2008 12:46:02 AM MDT


COLORADO SPRINGS — A Fort Carson soldier who was sent back to Iraq after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury died of a drug overdose, his widow said Monday.

Shelby Barrett, the wife of Staff Sgt. Chad Barrett, 35, said a Fort Carson casualty assistance officer notified her that her husband's death was "self-inflicted." She said she has not seen an official autopsy report from the military to know whether the death has been classified as accidental or a suicide.

Shelby Barrett said that an agent with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division told her that two empty prescription-pill bottles were found next to her husband's body Feb. 2 in Mosul. Barrett said investigators also found a letter in her husband's pocket. The content of the letter, part of an ongoing probe by the Criminal Investigation Division, was not shared with her.

"We are very saddened by the loss of this soldier. The entire Fort Carson community grieves for each and every soldier we lose. However, until the investigation is completed, we are not at liberty to give out specifics surrounding his death," said Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commanding general at Fort Carson.

Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, said he could not provide details until the investigation is completed.

Chad Barrett was part of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which has come under fire in recent months for sending injured soldiers to the Middle East. E-mails show that the brigade, now serving its third tour in Iraq, was having trouble reaching deployable strength when it went to Iraq late last year. The brigade surgeon said some "borderline" soldiers were returned.

Chad Barrett had been undergoing a medical evaluation board for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury suffered during two previous tours. He had a permanent profile — meaning he did not meet retention standards — but he asked Fort Carson to halt the medical board process so he could deploy.

"There is no way in hell he should have been deployed. The Army saw him as just another set of boots on the ground," said Shelby Barrett, who lives in Fountain. "From the second tour on, he changed 180 degrees. Three deployments is two too many. The Army took my husband from me. The Army destroyed my husband."

Chad Barrett worked as a radio operator from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. He was taking Klonopin for anxiety, Pamelor for severe migraines, and Lunesta and Ambien to help him sleep.

"They sent him to Iraq and gave him a weapon and wouldn't allow him to have bullets. He was a gunner, but they put him in a radio room and isolated him from everyone he knew. They put him on night watch, and that messed his meds up. None of that should have been done," Shelby Barrett said.

The widow said she hopes that there will be some accountability for sending her husband back to war.

"I would assume that there is going to be some sort of repercussions on his unit. I would hope so," she said.

Erin Emery: 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8845166?source=bb

Army 3 drug overdose deaths and 4 suicides in Warrior Transition Unit

Army: 3 ODs, 4 suicides in unit for wounded

By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008 9:41:05 EST

There have been at least three accidental drug overdoses and four suicides among soldiers in special units the Army set up last summer to help war-wounded troops, officials said late Thursday.

A team of pharmacists and other military officials met early this week at the Pentagon to look into the deaths in so-called “warrior transition units” — established to give sick, injured and wounded troops coordinated medical care, financial advice, legal help and other services as they attempt to make the transition toward either a return to uniform or back into civilian life.

The Army said officials had determined that among those troops there have been 11 deaths that were not due to natural causes between June and Feb. 5.

That included four suicides, three accidental overdoses of prescribed medications, three deaths still under investigation and one motor vehicle accident, the Army said.

“Army medical and safety professionals continue to remind soldiers and their families of the importance of prescription-drug safety precautions, including following the printed directions and information for each medicine,” the Army said of the overdoses in a statement Thursday.

Noting the death of actor Heath Ledger, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker last week first disclosed the issue of drug overdoses in the 35 special transition units, which care for more than 9,500 soldiers.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_armyod_080215/