First Responders ten times more likely to commit suicide,,,still?

“We have to help them continue on:” Local program helps first responders cope with PTSD
CBS 58 News
By: Whitney Martin
Posted: Feb 16, 2018

The internal pain, so deep emergency responders are ten times more likely to commit suicide, according to the journal of Emergency Medical Services. Twenty percent of firefighters are paramedics also have PTSD.

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) – A Wisconsin agency says emergency responders are committing suicide every 40 hours. Now, there’s a push in Madison to help save the people who live to save us.

A new law would expand the state’s workers’ compensation law allowing responders to take time away for PTSD, even if they weren’t physically injured during the traumatic experience.

CBS 58 Morning Anchor Whitney Martin explains the struggle that so many face.

Medals and awards line John Krahn’s walls. From the outside, he’s a hero. Inside, he’s fighting a battle only a few understand.

“I don’t dream normal dreams anymore. I haven’t since the accident,” said Krahn.

Those nightmares take the former Elm Grove Police Officer to the scene of a 2009 train accident where he was thrown into the air after attempting to save a mother and her son from a van stuck on the tracks.

While both made it out alive, Krahn still lives with the physical and emotional pain from that day, the day he almost died.

“I feel guilty that my wife has to deal with this,” Krahn says.

Krahn is referring to his post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD that can affect first responders causing flashbacks, anxiety, and insomnia, making some days feel like survival mode.
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Iraq Veteran beaten and stabbed searching for PTSD Service Dog

Man says he was stabbed and beaten while trying to retrieve lost dog
WREG 3 News
BY WREG STAFF AND ANDREW ELLISON
FEBRUARY 16, 2018

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A veteran says he was stabbed, beaten and robbed all while trying to get his service dog back, but now fears for the worst.

Michael Chaney just wants his pitbull “Scrappy” back.

"He's part of the family," Chaney said.

Chaney an Iraq war veteran says the service dog helps him deal with his PTSD and alerts people if he’s having a seizure.

"It get me out in places I normally won't go such as the mall," Chaney said.

Three weeks ago Scrappy got out and disappeared.

Chaney says he spotted him with a man two days ago under the overpass at Germantown Parkway and Walnut Grove.
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Forget Stolen Valor, this guy pretended to be homeless veterans!

Windsor man suspected of stealing IDs from homeless veterans to pay his rent
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
NICK RAHAIM
February 15, 2018

A Windsor man was indicted by a federal grand jury and is suspected of stealing the identities of homeless veterans and using their federal support funds to pay his own rent.

William Michael Andrews, 50, appeared in federal court in Oakland on Thursday morning and was charged with theft of government property and aggravated identity theft, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice.

A case worker for an East Bay nonprofit, Andrews is suspected of stealing the Social Security numbers of homeless veterans he worked with to use Veteran Affairs grant money to pay his own landlord, the Justice Department said. The federal funds were intended to house the homeless.
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This is what "Choice" did to veterans...choosing dying over debt?

7 Investigates: Veteran: Even after law change, veterans fearing medical debt choosing dying over ER
care
WSAW 7 News
By Matthew Simon
Feb 15, 2018

"Why would it be so hard to take healthcare reform, strike out the notion veterans don't deserve the same rights as every other American?” Zehrung asked. “You don't have to give me a handout. You don't have to revise the entire Veterans Administration. All you have to do is allow me to buy health insurance and I will pay for it myself."

PITTSVILLE, Wis. (WSAW) – A disabled Pittsville Gulf War veteran says the risk of medical bill debt is still too great to go to his closest ER during an emergency. That’s despite the Veteran Administration recently changing how the agency will pay some non-VA emergency bills.

"This can't take forever and a day,” Jerry Zehrung said. “Because every day this legislation is delayed is another day another veteran has to ask themselves should I go to the ER or should I wait. And some of these decisions, you're not going to convince me, aren't costing veterans their lives."

In January, the VA published their updated non-VA emergency payment rule, known as the Staab rule. It’s named after 85-year-old Minnesota Air Force veteran Richard Stabb, whose $48,000 emergency claim was denied by the VA because Medicare had paid a portion of his bill.

A House Veterans Affairs Committee spokesperson says the Jan. 9, 2018 change only applies to veterans who have extra insurance, and at the same time, are only seeking care for an emergency not associated with a military service injury, like Staab.

The rule change means nothing has changed for veterans like Zehrung, who only have VA provided insurance, or those who think they need emergency help because of an injury received while serving.

“When you have something like this case that comes up, and you have a lot of veterans that get together, and they commingle and they talk, and their spouses talk, and word gets out there's a chilling effect. I’m going to avoid any hospitalization or care unless I'm absolutely on my death bed because I don't want to be saddled with the extra cost of care," Jacqueline Schuh, the lawyer behind the lawsuit that led to the Staab rule’s implementation, said.
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Australia Vietnam Veterans Tracking Fake Heroes Too

The national will pause to remember those who fought in the Vietnam war. Picture: GLENN FERGUSON

A Vietnam veteran in Australia came across a post on Combat PTSD Wounded Times that went up back in 2014 on Robert William Richardson. He offered this update from ANZMI, a site dedicated to their own Stolen Valor folks. 

I have no way of tracking down what they have on the site, only because time is too limited. Here is the link to what they found. 

As always, check what you are reading and find the sources. I just thought it was good to know that other nations are tracking down their fakes too!

UPDATE from New Jersey on one of our own fakers....

Man arrested for allegedly impersonating a veteran for money

Veterans Services then began looking into Bonet's military history and discovered he was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged at the rank of PV1 from the Army in 1977. The organization also discovered that Bonet had contacted various veterans organizations throughout Bergen and Passaic counties for assistance. The Bergen County Division of Veterans Services sent its findings to Cresskill Detective Charles Franke.