Did The Cure For Pain Kill Iraq Veteran?

He survived the Iraq War, then lost an ugly battle against opioid addiction

Buffalo News

Lou Michel

December 3, 2017

“Don could walk, but he could not walk well. He was in pain...He was given a shot in the spine to block the pain. I think the shot gave him some relief but he should never have had to go back to Iraq.”

Capt. Donald Peterson, of the 98th Division of the Army Reserve, hugs his daughter Christina, 4, before heading off to Iraq in 2004. (Harry Scull Jr./News file photo)

The war was just beginning for Donald Peterson when he returned home from Iraq in 2005.

A traumatic brain injury, herniated discs and post-traumatic stress he suffered in battlegrounds overseas were his new enemies.

Opioids became his crutch.

As Peterson slipped into addiction and other medical problems arose, his wife and two daughters became fearful of the Army Reserve major. They moved out of their Amherst home for their own safety.

Then the 52-year-old combat veteran died alone last March in the Klein Road house he had remodeled for them.

His death certificate listed heart disease complicated by diabetes as the cause of death. His wife believes he might still be alive if he hadn’t become addicted to opioids, an addiction that started in the military. She blames Army doctors, veterans affairs physicians and a local pain specialist.

“When Don was at Walter Reed Medical Center, he told me they handed out the pain pills like Chiclets. He said he had become dependent on them,” Rosemarie Peterson said.

While much attention has been given to young people becoming addicted to opioids in recent years, little heed has been paid to the many military veterans showing up as addicts.

Between 2001 and 2009, military physicians wrote nearly 4 million prescriptions for painkillers to treat combat injuries and strains from the wear and tear of multiple deployments, according to a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs often ends up treating these veterans when they leave active duty, and the numbers show opioid addiction remains a formidable challenge:

• Some 68,000 veterans are being treated for “opioid use disorder” by the VA. 

• About one of every 10 soldiers who returns from Afghanistan and Iraq experiences problems with alcohol and other drugs. 

• Nearly one out of three veterans who seeks treatment for substance use disorder suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

read more here 

If you are having a hard time understanding what this pain is like, I am going through having shots into my spine right now. Back in April, I had the first round of needles being stuck into my spine.

While MRI and X-ray films show proof of the damage to my body, there are no machines to figure out what living with pain is like.

I take one pill in the morning so I can go to work, but my body has pretty much had it. I can't stand or sit for a long time. Laying down helps if I can stretch out. Not many jobs you can do in that position.

When you're in pain, you do whatever you can to make it stop. If your doctor tells you to take this pain med, you take it and hope it makes things better. You don't fear it will make it worse.

Same thing with PTSD. That is a type of pain you can't see but you can see the physical changes to your brain with a special scan. Still, when you have that pain, you just want to make it go away.

Days are a constant battle and nights are even worse. I do not know what it is like to have PTSD but I do know what it does, what surviving trauma did and I've seen what it is like when they start to heal.

As for this Major, the pain he must have been in should have kept him out of being deployed but not keeping him out of living the rest of his life with his family.

Back to the story, pay close attention to this part,

“In the period from 2001 to 2009, they issued 3.8 million prescriptions for pain reliving medications to the troops in the combat zone,” he said. “When these troops return home, the Department of Defense conducts random drug tests and some of those individuals were given other than honorable or dishonorable discharges."

If I am having such a hard time doing a desk job, think about the kind of pain they are risking their lives with while serving this nation. Is this justice for any of them?

Add in one more personal story that may make this easier to understand. I was so upset attending veterans events when news crews would show up, but veterans never saw the video on TV, that I went to College to figure out how to do the same thing for the veterans. I spent over $22,000 getting certifications in Digital Media. I have over 200 videos on Youtube. Since last year, I hardly ever go to the events because my body cannot take standing for long periods of time or walking too far. Going to the events was like fuel to my passion for veterans. 

I can't do it anymore even though I really want to and it is like torture for me.

They invest months of training, and then more training. They endure hardships none of us will ever understand because not doing what they are pulled to do, not doing it with those they are willing to die for, would be a type of torture for them. To be tossed out of the military because that service did something to their body-mind-spirit, is despicable.

Bet You Didn't Know Majority of VA Hospitals Use Holistic Therapies

Majority of VA hospitals offer holistic therapies, alternative to opioids, study finds

Washington Times

Laura Kelly

August 11, 2017

“In addition, some of the mind/body practices can be effective for the reduction of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. A patient might not want to admit they have PTSD, but they may be persuaded to take a yoga class,” she said.

This Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013, file photo shows hydrocodone pills, also known as Vicodin, arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. Leftover opioids are a common dilemma for surgery patients; a study published Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017,

Nearly 80 percent of military medical facilities are offering alternative medicines for pain management and psychological treatment instead of opioids when possible, according to a study published Thursday by the nonprofit RAND Corp.

Over 8.9 million veterans are treated at 1,233 veteran health facilities each year, according to the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The study said there were about 76,000 alternative therapy patient visits per month treated by 1,750 providers. Services include acupuncture, yoga, relaxation therapy, among others, and responding physicians said patients often express interest and openness to the treatments.

“Patient visits for [complementary and alternative medicine] make up a small but nontrivial portion of total outpatient [military treatment facilities] visits,” the authors wrote.

read more here

Veteran Died of Fatal Overdose, While in VA Lockdown?

Widow wants to know how Marine got drugs before fatal overdose in VA lockdown

Boston Herald

Jack Encarnacao, Chris Villani 

Monday, July 31, 2017

The widow of a Marine who fatally overdosed on fentanyl while on lockdown supervision at the Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatric campus in Brockton is demanding to know how he got the drugs, while the VA has simply attributed his death to the nation’s larger opioid scourge.

‘WHAT HAPPENED?’ Jamie Lee Hasted, right, is seeking answers from the Veterans Administration after her husband, Hank Brandon Lee, left, died in March of a fentanyl overdose.

“Since he has passed, the VA has told us nothing,” Jamie Lee Hasted told the Herald in an emotional interview about her late husband, Hank Brandon Lee. “Answers, the bottom line is answers. ... Did he take it willingly, not willingly, mixed up in the medicine? You have video cameras, where is the video? What happened? Let me try to get some type of closure.”

Lee, a Marine lance corporal and mortarman who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, died at age 35 of acute fentanyl intoxication March 4 after he was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton, according to his death certificate.

The day he died, Lee was found unresponsive by a nursing assistant and medication nurse in the day room of the inpatient psych ward. He “appeared to be sleeping sitting up in chair with head tilted to right, color ashen” when found, and didn’t answer when they called him, according to VA records reviewed by the Herald. First responders found him “unresponsive, pulseless,” according to fire department records.

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Suicide? Don't Give Up On LIfe--Fight Back

Mental Health: Suicide ... giving up on life
Valley Star
By Ralph E. Jones
 Mental Health
Posted: Sunday, March 26, 2017

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe, American Author, 1811-1896

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 45,000 individuals commit suicide each year in the United States; that is about 121 suicides per day.

It is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States. For every suicide there are 25 failed attempts, and the number of admissions to hospitals for suicidal attempts is close to 500,000 per year.

Contrary to popular belief, the rates of suicide are highest in age groups among adults ages 45-64; the majority, 7 out of 10, being males (although females have the highest numbers of suicide attempts).

Of primary concern, and the reason behind writing this article, is the growing numbers of suicides among our young people and military veterans, ages 15 to 24 in particular. The Veterans Administration reports that approximately 22 veterans commit suicide every day. These are the highest rates since the VA began keeping record of such, and is a much higher number than in the general population.

In the general population of civilians, there is a growing number of youth committing suicide as well, primarily as a result of increase use of opioids, and the resultant overdose on opioids; which has blossomed into a national crisis.

In a report released this month by the Veterans Administration, a study of veterans use of drugs and alcohol as related to suicide, it was found that Veterans who have drug and/or alcohol problems are more than twice as likely to die by suicide as their comrades; and women Veterans with substance use disorders have an even higher rate of suicide — more than five times that of their peers.
read more here

Veteran Faces New Battle, Saving Her Baby From Opioid Dependency

U.S. Army veteran Jaclyn Alexander returned from Iraq to face new battle -- saving her baby girl from opioid dependency
MassLive.com
By Dan Glaun
January 08, 2017

This is first in a MassLive special report on the the impact of the opioid crisis on children in Massachusetts.

Jaclyn Alexander and her daughter Ella Donna, who has neonatal abstinence syndrome. Alexander developed an opioid addiction after being prescribed painkillers in the military; she is now clean.

When Jaclyn Alexander returned to the United States from military service in Iraq, her war was just beginning.

From an airbase nicknamed "Mortaritaville," to nerve damage in her back, to oxycodone, to morphine, to addiction. From addiction, to motherhood, to theft, to heroin, to detox and dope sickness, to recovery, to the Baystate Medical Center Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where she sat holding her second daughter, quiet and calm but born dependent on the suboxone keeping her mother from relapse.

It has been, she said, a long road.

"I could not be in a better place. If you asked me a year ago if I would be right here right now I would absolutely have said no," Alexander said, amid the soft whooshes and mechanical chirps of the medical ward. "It's a phenomenal turnaround."

Alexander's baby, Ella Donna, is one of the growing number of children born dependent on opioids - what doctors call neonatal abstinence syndrome. It is a condition that requires special care, but is treatable, with approaches that have been refined as Massachusetts' addiction crisis has given the state one of the highest rates of NAS in the country.
read more here

Killing Pain or Killing Veterans?

The claim made about Opioids is a valid one. The question is, why hasn't Congress done their jobs after all the years it has been reported in the past?

Not a new problem for veterans

Air Force veteran Ken Grady, 45, says the local VA prescribed him OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin and fentanyl patches in the 2000s because of a series of surgeries for back injuries. “The VA made it so easy,” he says. “It was endless, and I abused it.”

And one more thing to point out is this.

Last month, Mr. Grady had several teeth pulled by a VA contractor, who prescribed him Vicodin for the pain. Mr. Grady says he protested, but “you don’t have to twist my arm too much.” He relapsed, bought more pills on the street and landed back in jail. He hoped to be out by Christmas but his mother says it is taking longer than expected to find treatment and a place to stay.

The VA Hooked Veterans on Opioids, Then Failed Them Again
Wall Street Journal
By Valerie Bauerlein and Arian Campo-Flores
Photographs by Travis Dove for The Wall Street Journal

Shortly after enlisting in the Army, Robert Deatherage was prescribed Percocet for a back injury. Wounds from Afghanistan meant more painkillers.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.—Robert Deatherage, a 30-year-old Army veteran who has battled addiction to pain pills and heroin since suffering severe injuries in Afghanistan, says he reached rock bottom a year ago when he holed up in an empty church and tried to kill himself. Twice.

“I was just so sick of being as sick as I was,” he says. He put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, but it didn’t fire. He says he then used two syringes to shoot all the drugs he had, but didn’t overdose.

Mr. Deatherage took the failure as a spiritual sign and walked to the nearby Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The facility didn’t have any space and turned him away, offering only a jacket from the lost and found and a phone number for a homeless veterans coordinator. After he picked up his disability check a few days later, he checked into a hotel where he knew other addicts, including veterans.

“It gets discouraging,” Mr. Deatherage says. “It makes it easier to just say, ‘F--- it, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.’ ”
read more here

But this is nothing new.

Veterans dying from overmedicationCBS 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.
read more here

But that wasn't new either

Veterans with PTSD more likely to get addictive painkillers despite the risks, VA study showsBy Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, March 6, 4:34 PM (2012)
CHICAGO — Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain, and the consequences can be tragic, a government study suggests.
These vets are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse, but they’re two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain, according to the study, billed as the first national examination of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD who already had substance abuse problems were four times more likely to get these drugs than vets without mental health problems, according to the study.
Subsequent suicides, other self-inflicted injuries, and drug and alcohol overdoses were all more common in vets with PTSD who got these drugs. These consequences were rare but still troubling, the study authors said.read more here 

But that was nothing new either. 

Rise in drug prescriptions may signal abuseBy Gregg Zoroya - USA TodayPosted : Saturday Nov 1, 2008
The sharp rise in outpatient prescriptions paid for by the government suggests doctors rely too heavily on narcotics, says Army Col. Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Recently, at least 20 soldiers in an engineer company of 70 to 80 soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., shared and abused painkillers prescribed for their injuries, according to court testimony.
“The groundwork for this toxic situation was laid out through the continual prescription of highly addictive, commonly overused drugs,” said Capt. Elizabeth Turner, the lawyer for one defendant in the case.
In response to six suicides and seven drug-related deaths among soldiers in Warrior Transition Units — created for the Army's most severely injured — aggressive efforts are underway to manage prescription drugs, says Col. Paul Cordts, chief of health policy for the Army surgeon general. These include limiting prescriptions to a seven-day supply and more closely monitoring use.

But that wasn't new either 

Autopsy: Mix of pain meds killed Irwin soldierThe Associated PressPosted : Friday Aug 22, 2008 8:08:04 EDT
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — An autopsy of a soldier who died while training at Fort Irwin has revealed she was killed by a combination of prescription drugs she was taking for pain.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department made the finding about the accidental death of Spc. Emily T. Ort, 24, of Willis, Texas.
“There is no evidence of suicide,” the report said. “The decedent did not have a history of chronic drug abuse.”
On May 3, Ort was discovered unresponsive in her sleeping bag and was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed a few days later, but the report was not released until this week.
Ort had acetaminophen, morphine, hydrocodone and gabapentin as well as anti-anxiety drugs Valium and oxazepam in her system, the report said.
The soldier was apparently taking Vicodin and Valium for injuries she sustained during a 2007 car accident.
The night before she died, Ort told her mother that her medication was stolen and her doctor prescribed morphine and a muscle relaxer as replacements, the report said.http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_irwindeath_082208/

I could keep going but I have such informed readers you get the point.

Veterans Hooked on Heroin After VA Pain Pills

Veterans hooked on heroin struggle to find help
KRDO ABC 13 News
By: Bart Bedsole
Posted: Nov 03, 2016

A top VA pain management expert, Dr. Julie Franklin, recently testified to the House Committee On Veterans Affairs that almost 60% of veterans returning from the Middle East have some form of chronic pain requiring treatment.

A KRDO Newschannel 13 investigation found that 63,880 veterans were treated in 2015 for an opioid use disorder.

A KRDO Newschannel 13 investigation revealed that a large number of heroin addicts in America are veterans.

Not only has the VA health care system struggled to help them, but it may also be responsible for inadvertently creating the addictions in the first place.

Ross Armentor is recovering heroin addict who has been sober for three years this month.

Shortly after serving in Iraq in 2003, he was prescribed the powerful painkiller Percocet, which contains the opioid oxycontin.

He was suffering from a torm hamstring at the time.

Within a few months, he was addicted.
read more here

Veterans Opioid Painkillers Leading to Heroin?

This story is painful to read for several reasons. It happened to a two tour veteran in this decade. It also happened to my husband's nephew in the previous decade.

My husband's nephew was a Vietnam veteran, just like my husband. They served the same year but while both came home with PTSD, his nephew was also wounded. The physical wounds were easier for him to live with than PTSD. He was also addicted to heroin.

Fast forward years later, he got straight and got help from the VA to heal. He needed more help, but wouldn't listen. He committed suicide in a motel room with enough heroin to kill ten men. My husband is still here and living a better life. As for his nephew, his suicide haunts me. I blame myself most of the time because as much as I knew about PTSD and what he needed, I never found the way to get him to hear me.

So I work a bit harder, pray harder to find the words, tell the stories of others hoping to save as many as possible.

When you read the following story, consider how long all of this has been going on, then wonder what it will take for those in charge to come to the conclusion they need to find a way to be heard before it is too late for even more.

This veteran had been redeployed even after being diagnosed with PTSD. This is not an unusual story, since it happened more times than you may be aware of. It is a painful reminder of so much more that needs to be done to make being home after combat less dangerous than combat itself.

Rising use of opioid painkillers and efforts to curb them may lead soldiers, vets to heroin
FayObserver
By Amanda Dolasinski Staff writer
Jan 16, 2016

When he returned from deployment, Terry Nowiski said, her son was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was relieved with that diagnosis because he was able to grasp what was wrong and form a game plan to control it, she said.

During his second deployment in 2009, she said, he again fell into depression, which was noted in his medical records.

He returned from that deployment in July 2010.

Photo by Andrew Craft

Aaron Nowiski was a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division

Twenty-four year-old Aaron Nowiski died alone, on his bed next to two bags of heroin.

The Army veteran, who served two tours in Iraq, had secretly been using the powerfully addictive drug, even fooling his family into the understanding that he had quit, before it claimed his life in 2011.

"I only found out because he had been arrested for drug paraphernalia," said his mother, Terry Nowiski. "He was able to hide that part of his life from us. I know he was ashamed."

While heroin overdoses and deaths continue to rise in Fayetteville and across the country, there is little evidence to suggest that veterans in this city are becoming addicted to the drug at a higher rate than civilians.

But the risk is there.

Studies show that soldiers and veterans use opioid painkillers - essentially the chemical equivalent of heroin - far more frequently than civilians because their military training and combat lead to far more injuries.

The concern is that the harder it becomes to legally obtain opioid painkillers, the more likely it is that veterans addicted to them will turn to heroin. That could be especially true in Fayetteville, where painkiller use is so common.
read more here

VA Opiate Overuse Subject of Another Senate Hearing

Marine’s overdose death sparking VA opiate debate 
Stars and Stripes
By Travis J. Tritten
Published: June 24, 2015

"My son had an addiction with pain meds and yet they put my son back on pain meds,” said Marv Simcakoski, his father. “They sent him home with 50 some [pills] and told him to take them regularly.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., speaks at a press conference about the Jason Simcakoski Memorial Opioid Safety Act at the U.S. Capitol, June 24, 2015. Behind her are Jason Simcakoski's father, Marv; mother, Linda; daughter, Anaya; and widow, Heather. JOE GROMELSKI/STARS AND STRIPES

WASHINGTON — Nearly a year after his death, Marine Corps veteran Jason Simcakoski was at the center of a debate on Capitol Hill on Wednesday over new regulations for opioid prescriptions at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

His parents, widow and daughter watched as a Senate committee weighed an overhaul bill, sponsored by a Wisconsin senator, designed to curb overdose deaths at the state’s Tomah VA and other medical centers across the country. It was a crucial first step for the legislation, though many hurdles remain and its future is uncertain.

Simcakoski died at Tomah in August after a toxic reaction to more than 12 medications including opiates. He has become the face of what veteran groups and other advocates say is an epidemic of dangerous opioid prescriptions to VA patients.
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Families Prepare to Talk About Reality of "Candy Land" Deaths

Late vets' family members to have their say about VA care
USA TODAY
Donovan Slack
March 29, 2015

He checked him into Tomah for severe anxiety and a painkiller addiction last summer. But in late August, Jason texted him to say the medications were making him crazy. He asked his father for help. So Marv Simcakoski set up a meeting with his son, a patient advocate and his son's doctor, who consulted with Houlihan on adding another opiate to his son's regimen.

WASHINGTON — A construction contractor will relive the "most painful day" of his life when his veteran son died at a Wisconsin Veterans Affairs' center.

A widow will recount receiving bags of pills in the mail for a husband who hadn't been home for months.

A daughter will chronicle the final lucid hours of her veteran father as he waited hours for care, then slumped over limp and unresponsive.

And a pharmacist will raise questions about three more "unexplained" veteran deaths — all patients like the others who received treatment at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

All are set to testify at what promises to be an emotional congressional hearing in Tomah, Wis., Monday. It will be their first chance to publicly face VA officials overseeing the facility since news reports drew national attention to their struggles and triggered investigations by several state and federal agencies, including the VA and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Five months after Daigh declined to release his findings, 35-year-old Marine veteran Jason Simcakoski died from an overdose as an inpatient in Tomah. It was just days after Houlihan agreed that another opiate should be added to the 14 drugs he was already prescribed.

read more here

VA Releases Tomah Opioid Report

VETERANS AFFAIRS VA News Releases
VA Releases Key Findings of Clinical Review of Opioid Practices in Tomah
03/10/2015 04:18 PM EDT

VA Releases Key Findings of Clinical Review of Opioid Practices in Tomah
Clinical and Administrative Reviews Still Ongoing

Washington – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today released key findings and recommendations of its initial clinical review into opioid prescription practices at the Tomah VA Medical Center (VAMC).

Based on these preliminary findings, the team recommended that VA consider a more in-depth evaluation of the clinical and administrative practices at the Tomah VAMC. An administrative review team from VA’s Office of Accountability Review (OAR) is continuing to look at allegations of retaliation against employees and other accountability issues related to Tomah VAMC leadership.

Investigators from the independent VA Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration have also been on site.

Yesterday, VA announced the accelerated deployment of a nationwide opioid therapy tool for use at all Veterans Health Administration (VHA) facilities.

In January, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald directed Interim Under Secretary for Health Dr. Carolyn Clancy to lead a comprehensive review of medication prescription practices at the Tomah VA Medical Center. Dr. Clancy charged the Clinical Review Team to assess the practice patterns, controlled substance prescribing habits, and administrative interactions with subordinates and clinical leadership as related to prescribing practices.

The release of the key findings comes as VA’s Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson met today with employees and stakeholders in Tomah.

91,614 fewer patients receiving opioids;
29,281 fewer patients receiving opioids and benzodiazepines together;
71,255 more patients on opioids that have had a urine drug screen to help guide treatment decisions;
67,466 fewer patients on long-term opioid therapy

Drug abuse an increasing problem among Afghan police, soldiers

10/05/08 MCT: Drug abuse an increasing problem among Afghan police, soldiers
If his job doesn't kill him, the heroin might. Mohammad Akbar is a first lieutenant in the highly touted Afghan National Army, considered crucial to the future of this war-torn country. But for three years, Akbar has also been a junkie...
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http://icasualties.org/oef/