As soldiers return home, patients expected to increase

As soldiers return home, patients expected to increase
VA Healthcare expects more patients

Updated: Monday, 16 Jan 2012, 1:04 PM MST
Published : Monday, 16 Jan 2012, 1:04 PM MST

Amanda Goodman

The New Mexico Department of Veterans Affairs says in 2011 it recorded 116 suicide attempts and 21 completed suicides.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It has been nearly one month since the last of the U.S. soldiers in Iraq rolled across the border into Kuwait and out of Iraq for good.

Over the next few months many of those soldiers will be heading home, bringing their battle scars whether physical or emotional back with them.

"It is about 50 percent that seek VA healthcare for mental health conditions and those conditions include post traumatic stress and post traumatic stress disorder,” Melissa Middleton with NM VA Healthcare system said.

New Mexico’s Veteran’s Affairs Healthcare System is expecting to see an increase in patients in 2012.

"Of the ones that were just discharged, I'm expecting somewhere around 1,000,” Middleton said.

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Fresno VA live music calms PTSD TBI veterans waiting for appointments

Live music at Fresno's VA hospital makes a big difference
Musicians in the hospital waiting room were meant to provide simple distraction, but doctors noticed improvement in many patients, especially those with PTSD or traumatic brain injury.

By Diana Marcum, Los Angeles Times
January 16, 2012

Reporting from Fresno— The hospital was built in the years after World War II. Its ceilings are low, corridors long and corners sharp — all possible stress triggers for those who have been in combat.

Not to mention that a hospital waiting room can make anyone edgy.

But the Veterans Affairs hospital in Fresno has found a way to make the experience easier: live music.

A musician playing amid the hustle and bustle is familiar to anyone who has ever sat at a cafe with entertainment or taken the subway. But this has proved to be more. The hospital set out to provide simple distraction, but soon doctors noticed a marked improvement in many of their patients, especially those with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.

Dr. Hani Khouzam, a psychiatrist who treats both disorders, said patients have been arriving for appointments so notably calmer that it takes him longer to make a diagnosis — something he welcomes.

"You have to understand what it means for a combat veteran to be agitated in the waiting room.

Their pupils are dilated. They are angry or waiting for something to happen," he said. "But when we have live music that day, they come to me far more relaxed. It's like an amazing miracle, and I don't say that lightly."

On a recent day in a busy main reception area, grandfathers waited for blood work and a young veteran was whisked through on a gurney, face-down and in restraints — possibly headed for a locked psychiatric unit. Jon Sharp, a classical guitarist, played Francisco Tarrega's "Recuerdos de la Alhambra," which begins in wistful melancholy and builds to an uplifting melody.

George Flores, head of the hospital's police force and himself an Iraq War veteran, paused to listen.
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Fort Bragg soldier faces multiple charges after shootout with Fayetteville police

Fort Bragg soldier faces multiple charges after shootout with Fayetteville police
Jan 16, 2012
By Paul Woolverton
Staff writer

Kimberly Brown was relaxing in her west Fayetteville apartment with some television Friday night when she smelled smoke and saw firetrucks come through the gate into the complex's parking lot.

In the next 30 minutes, she heard pounding footsteps, men banging on doors, water spraying the outside of her apartment building and gunfire.

Brown's upstairs neighbor, Fort Bragg Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Paul Eisenhauer, was involved in a shootout and standoff with police. He ended up critically injured and charged with 30 felonies, including 15 counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Two police officers suffered minor injuries. One was treated at the scene, the other at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, police said.

And Brown spent the night in a Fayetteville fire station.

The incident started about 10 p.m. Friday when someone reported a fire at Austin Creek Apartments on Capeharbor Court, which is off 71st School Road between Raeford Road and Cliffdale Road, the Police Department said.

Brown said firefighters knocked on residents' doors, asking if they had a fire in their units.

She saw two go up to the third floor, she said, and then heard them talking to Eisenhauer, asking him to open the door.

He refused, Brown said.
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Fort Bragg Soldier in Fayetteville shootout

Syracuse VA helps vets battle hidden wounds of war

VA helps vets battle hidden wounds of war
Published: Monday, January 16, 2012,
By James T. Mulder / The Post-Standard

Dick Blume/The Post Standard
Military veteran Chip Crawford of Baldwinsville says the VA has helped him cope with post traumatic stress disorder

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Chip Crawford of Baldwinsville estimates that for every military veteran like himself who has been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, there are five others who need the same help but are not getting it.

“They’re just living with the pain, trying to go about living in the world, even though you don’t fit in,” said Crawford, 50, who served with the U.S. Coast Guard in the early 1980s in Grenada and Lebanon.

Crawford shared his story at the Syracuse VA Medical Center earlier this week at Recovery Day, a program designed to encourage veterans who need help with PTSD and other mental health issues to come to the VA. Other veterans, family members and VA officials joined Crawford.

“The nightmares never end but the treatment you get helps you deal with them,” Crawford said.

The Syracuse VA provides mental health services to more than 7,000 patients annually and expects those numbers to grow as more soldiers return from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Error spurred false alarm at Tucson base

Officials: Error spurred false alarm at Tucson base
by Dennis Wagner on Jan. 15, 2012, under Arizona Republic News

The false report of a hostage incident that shut down Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson four months ago was the result of a misunderstanding rather than a hoax, a base spokesman says.

During the Sept. 16 incident, which began about 9 a.m., SWAT teams were deployed from as far away as Phoenix. Base personnel were put in lockdown or evacuated for most of the day. Military flights were disrupted. Major streets were closed. Frightened parents were unable to pick up children from base schools.

Finally, the base commander, Col. John Cherrey, announced without explanation that the threat was over and no gunman or weapon had been found.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Air Force provided partial records to The Arizona Republic that shed some light on the incident. Those documents do not explain who first reported the threat or how the error occurred.

In an interview, Capt. Jonathan Simmons said, “We don’t believe it was a hoax. We believe it was a mistake. And, if someone thinks they see a gunman on base, they should report it.”

E-mails among Air Force officials sent during the six-hour episode indicate fears of a tragedy similar to the November 2009 rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, where a U.S. Army psychiatrist is accused of killing 13 and wounding dozens.

“Planning for worst case mass casualties,” advised an 11:24 a.m. message from the base vice commander.
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