Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors

Local mom battles to give a voice to the Wounded Warriors
November 4, 2008

By Jim Feehan
Cynthia Lefever continues to make noise. And she said she won’t stop trying to get national officials to improve medical care for returning Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress.



She’s intimately aware of the devastating effects of blast injuries. Her son, Rory Dunn, a 2000 graduate of Liberty High School, was nearly killed four years ago by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, Iraq. The bomb exploded above his Humvee, killing two of his friends. His forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. Shrapnel destroyed his right eye and his hearing was severely damaged.

He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad, where doctors worked to save him. Five days later, he was flown to a hospital at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where family had gone on “imminent death orders” to say their goodbyes.

“Doctors gave him a 2 percent chance of survival,” Lefever said.

Despite the grim prognosis, Dunn did survive. One day after he arrived in Germany, he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., still in a coma.

“When he arrived at Walter Reed, neurosurgeons said Rory’s injuries were the worst they had ever seen,” Lefever said.

The journey for mother and son the past four years has been a study of perseverance — Dunn defying the odds each step of his recovery and Lefever battling the Army to ensure he continued to receive critical care from Reed’s top-notch surgeons. Almost six weeks later, Dunn emerged from his coma.

“Within days of coming out of a coma, Army leadership was at his bedside putting a pen in his hand to start the discharge process with the ultimate goal of getting Rory off the books,” Lefever said.

“When we let these wounded warriors languish in bed and presume that all that can be done is to change their diaper and turn them regularly and get them out for fresh air, that’s ridiculous. I just think it’s immoral and unethical.”



Honored for her work

Lefever sought the help of various organizations and agencies providing assistance to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans and their families. She also called Sen. Patty Murray’s office. Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has become a friend and ally. In 2005, Murray awarded Dunn his Purple Heart.
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Democrats Kosmas, Grayson defeat GOP veterans Keller, Feeney

Democrats Kosmas, Grayson defeat GOP veterans Keller, Feeney
Mark Schlueb and Rachael Jackson | Sentinel Staff Writers
November 5, 2008
Voters swept Republican incumbents Tom Feeney and Ric Keller out of Congress on Tuesday, electing Democrats in districts once seen as GOP strongholds.

Former state Rep. Suzanne Kosmas beat Feeney to win Florida's 24th District. And attorney Alan Grayson beat Keller in the 8th District.

"I got licked," Feeney said in a short concession speech to supporters, some of whom were in tears.

"There are differences between me and Kosmas, but I wish her well."

Kosmas painted herself a moderate, essential in an east Central Florida district that leans Republican.

Feeney helped draw the district, which includes parts of Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Orange counties, for himself when he was state House speaker. But his Republican advantage shrank this year as more Democrats and independents registered to vote.

In the 8th District, Grayson outdistanced Keller after hammering the incumbent for breaking a promise to serve only four terms and tying Keller to President Bush and the troubled economy.
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Informed electorate won

Thomas Jefferson said this nation would be great when we had a free press and an informed electorate. Today we achieved that.

Over the last year, we've heard all kinds of strange claims coming out of the McCain campaign, words that he and Palin can never take back and words his supporters will have to live with. It was amazing to hear how uninformed many of them were. This went far beyond just supporting McCain because they liked him and his policy, but crossed into delusion. Obama was accused of being a terrorist, a traitor among so many other things and McCain will have to return to the senate with the shame of this on his shoulders. It was one of the nastiest, lie filled campaigns a senator could run and the majority of this nation lost the respect he had earned.

John McCain has a lot of work to do to restore his reputation and so do his supporters if they want to. It's up to them but the rest of us will move on and try to do what we can to keep the promises we made to our own children, to leave them a better nation.

Tomorrow, we begin a new journey and hope comes back to these lands. I can't wait to hear President Elect Obama address the nation tonight.

OBAMA WINS!!

UPDATE 11-5-08
Last night I posted the states I thought Obama had a good chance of winning. I was wrong on 5 of the states I picked. At no time in my wildest dreams did I think he would have done what turned out to be a huge mandate on change from coast to coast.

338
52%
62,532,271

Just amazing!

Let's see how bad I did on guessing on election
Here is my guess for states Obama has a chance to win.
VT O
ME O
NH O
MA O
RI O
CT O
NJ O
DE O
MD O
DC O
NY O
PA O
VA O
NC I was wrong
GA I was wrong
FL O and thank you Florida!
MI O
OH O
IN O
IL O
WI O
MN O
IA O
MT I was wrong
WA O
OR O
CA O
NV O
NM O
AZ I was wrong
TX-------early call makes me wrong on this
HI O

I just got back from the movies so I"ll have to check back and see what else I got wrong later.

MSNBC Update
10:13 Keller in Florida lost Chris Shays lost

10:37 Kay Hagan NC beat Dole, Al Frankin projected winner in MN

11:00 MMBC Called Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii for Obama

President Obama!!!!

11:11 AP reports McCain conceded


CNN: OBAMA TO BE NEXT PRESIDENT
BREAKING NEWS
Obama makes history Sen. Barack Obama will defeat Sen. John McCain to become the next U.S. president, CNN projects. Projected wins in West Coast states helped give the Democrat the magic number of electoral votes. developing story

11:14 MSNBC calls Colorado for Obama

11:18 McCain address his supporters and congratulated Obama.








Obama beats McCain Barack Obama thumped John McCain in the Electoral College tally and handily won the popular vote, becoming the first African-American elected president of the United States. "Change has come to America," Obama told supporters. full story
Audio Slide Show: 'This is our moment'
Obama: 'Yes we can' Transcript Videos
McCain concedes race Transcript Videos

UK:PTSD on trial Traumatised veterans' fight for care

Traumatised veterans' fight for care

By Paul Burnell
BBC File On 4


Darren Wright looked destined for a successful military career, decorated for bravery in Afghanistan and an army boxing champion.

Instead he is serving an 11-year prison sentence for the violent kidnap, with five other men, of a wealthy businessman from Glasgow.

His family has no doubt the war hero became a criminal owing to a lack of effective care and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) brought on by horrific scenes he witnessed in Afghanistan.

"He got this idea in his head he'd got to protect his family so he slept downstairs as if on guard waiting for the enemy to arrive," his stepmother Mary Costigan told BBC File On 4.

The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday reported diagnosing almost 4,000 new cases of mental illness among forces personnel last year, with those sent to Afghanistan or Iraq most likely to be traumatised.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7706163.stm

DoD NOT COMPLYING WITH REQUIREMENTS FOR PERSONALITY DISORDER DISCHARGES

GAO REPORT: DoD NOT COMPLYING WITH REQUIREMENTS FOR PERSONALITY DISORDER DISCHARGES
(11-01-08)Military officials responsible for reviewing servicemembers' records could not explain why many PD separations were approved.
GAO's review of enlisted servicemembers' records found that the selected military installations GAO visited varied in their documented compliance with DOD's requirements for personality disorder separations. DOD has requirements for separations because of a personality disorder, which is defined as an enduring pattern of behavior that deviates markedly from expected behavior and has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood. The three key requirements established by DOD are that enlisted servicemembers

(1) must be notified of their impending separation because of a personality disorder,
(2) must be diagnosed with a personality disorder by a psychiatrist or psychologist who determines that servicemembers' personality disorder interferes with their ability to function in the military, and
(3) must receive formal counseling about their problem with functioning in the military.

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http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfnov08/nf110108-4.htm

Soldier sentenced in slaying of fellow Iraq vet

Soldier sentenced in slaying of fellow Iraq vet

By P. Solomon Banda - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 3, 2008 21:44:42 EST

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A soldier who pleaded guilty in the shooting death of a fellow Iraq veteran apologized to the victim’s family in court Monday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Kenneth Eastridge, 24, pleaded guilty in July to accessory to murder in the death of Kevin Shields. Shields’ family said he had just learned his wife was pregnant and had gone to a nightclub to celebrate when he was killed on Dec. 1, his birthday. While there, he met up with Eastridge and Louis Bressler, two soldiers he met while serving in Iraq.

Prosecutors said Bressler killed Shields after the two of them fought in a park and Eastridge later helped get rid of evidence.

“I don’t have the right to ask for forgiveness but I just hope that everybody knows someday that I really am sorry,” Eastridge said, visibly shaking as he read his statement from a podium in the courtroom.

“I believe he loved his family,” said Eastridge, who was wearing an orange jail suit and had a tattoo on one arm of a double lightning bolt, a neo-Nazi symbol. “I really didn’t know him that well but he spoke a lot about his wife and his kids .... I had no idea that Kevin was going to be killed.”

Outside the courtroom, Shields’ mother, Debra Shields of Loves Park, Ill., held her son’s dog tags and tearfully said it was the first time any of the three defendants had shown any remorse.

McAteer said that during two tours in Iraq, Eastridge manned a machine gun on top of a Humvee and saw “more battles and bloodshed as a 19-year-old than most will ever see in a lifetime.”

She said he suffered a serious head injury when a roadside bomb struck his Humvee during his first tour, tossing him 30 to 60 feet. She said a pre-sentence report found Eastridge suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and she blamed the military for discharging him without medical help.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_soldier_sentenced_110308/

Four Marines are arrested in Riverside County double slaying

Four Marines are arrested in Riverside County double slaying
By Tony Perry
Tue, 4 Nov 2008 8:54:29 AM

Four Marines have been arrested for the slaying of a Marine and his wife at their home in the Winchester neighborhood of Riverside County, the county sheriff's department announced.

The four have confessed in the killing of Sgt. Jan Pietrzak, 24, and his wife, Quianna Jenkins Pietrzak, 26, authorities said. The motive allegedly was robbery.


Pvt. Kesuan Sykes, 21, is being held in a Riverside jail. Lance Cpl. Tyrone Miller, 20; Pvt. Kevin Darnell Cox, 20, and Pvt. Emrys John, 18, are being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton. Two of the four served in the same unit as Pietrzak.

Double tragedy grieves Lawrence MA after fire

Double tragedy grieves Lawrence
Late Sunday night, Sean Cahalane, a young, developmentally disabled man who was always eager to help others was the one in desperate need as a fire engulfed his house in Lawrence. His mother, 51-year-old Linda Cahalane, rushed back in to save her son. But both were killed, apparently overwhelmed by the smoke. (By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff)

Former custodian ID'd as man who set himself on fire at UW last week

Former custodian ID'd as man who set himself on fire at UW last week

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has released the name of a 61-year-old former custodian at the University of Washington who died after setting himself on fire in the UW's Red Square on Thursday. In Soo Chun died at Harborview Medical Center from second- and third-degree burns that covered 90 percent of his body.

By Will Mari

Seattle Times staff reporter

The King County Medical Examiner's Office has released the name of a man who died Thursday after setting himself on fire in the University of Washington's Red Square.

In Soo Chun, 61, a former UW custodian, died at Harborview Medical Center from second- and third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body.

According to UW spokesman Norm Arkans, Chun had worked for the UW's Facilities Services from December 2005 to early summer of this year. He immigrated to the U.S. from Korea in 1977 and became a naturalized citizen in 1982.
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