Hidden Heroes: When her husband was injured in Afghanistan, she fought to get him the care he needed
Johnson City Press
Hannah Swayze
July 8, 2018
Soon, Susan also realized, they had to move. The family was living in Fort Bragg at the time, and there, military life was unescapable. They decided to look for another place to live and they heard about the Mountain Home Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.
“Once we came here it was like the Disney World of VAs,” said Susan. Susan says their lives look a lot different now.
Hannah Swayze
This is a photo collage that Susan created to show their doctors and counselors to illustrate really what Jason has gone through. The first top left photo is Justin before the injuries and the other three surrounding it are the aftermath of the explosion. "I realized as I became justin's advocate and I became his voice that words simply won't describe what he had survived," said Susan.
Susan Freeman became her husband Justin’s caregiver after he returned from war. He was severely injured after his truck was shattered by a 1,000-pound improvised explosive device, or IED, in 2009, though looking at him and talking to him today, you might not notice more than a limp.
Justin, a U.S. Army veteran, said it was the largest successfully detonated IED that had been used in Afghanistan at that point in the war.
The explosion left Justin severely injured. He suffered damage to his brain and spinal cord and various other places throughout his body. It wasn't until after he painfully finished out his deployment and returned to the United States that he and his family realized just how much damage had been done.
“When he walked off the plane I could see that he was just broken,” said Susan. “He was broken mentally and physically and spiritually broken.”
When Justin returned, he was put in rehabilitation, going to appointment after appointment. It wasn't long before Susan realized that he wasn't really getting better.
Justin was grieving the loss of his career in the Army and struggling both physically and mentally. His injuries were numerous: nerve damage in his shoulder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and more. His mental health plummeted.
read more here
Are you transitioning or surrendering?
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
July 8, 2018
Life is about transitioning from one place to another. In this case, we're talking about the transition from surrendering to something that happened into being a survivor and using your transmission to move you forward.
WHAT DOES A TRANSMISSION DO?
From Meineke
How Does an Automatic Transmission Work?
An automatic transmission is essentially an automatic gear shifter...Have you ever heard the sound of your engine getting higher, then lower as your car accelerates? A car in a low gear will start struggle as its pushed to higher speeds. A car with an automatic transmission has a torque converter that senses these changes as you accelerate and shifts you to a higher gear. The same process works in reverse as you slow down.
TRANSITION
movement, passage, or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc., to another; change: the transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Music.
a passing from one key to another; modulation.
a brief modulation; a modulation used in passing.
a sudden, unprepared modulation.
a passage from one scene to another by sound effects, music, etc., as in a television program, theatrical production, or the like.
There are things you may have told yourself, that are simply not true!
The first lie is when you told yourself there was something wrong with you. The truth is, there is something strong within you!
If you chose a job where you knew it could kill you, military, law enforcement, firefighting or any of the other jobs protecting others, that choice came from a very strong emotional core.
Civilians can get hit by PTSD from just one event in their lives. When you consider how many events you survived, it should make more sense that you would get hit harder, than escape it because of your training.
You may be resilient, but that does not mean you are impervious to what your jobs did to you.
If you do not have PTSD, then make sure that you keep doing the steps for Crisis Intervention for yourself. That starts with being able to open up about what you witnessed from an emotional level, not just a tactical one.
Every time I survived something that could have killed me, I was able to talk about all of it knowing I mattered to someone. It helped me get out the ugliness of what I was faced with so that good stuff could get back in.
read more here
A week after stabbings, his city gives Boise's police chief hope 'to create good out of horror'
Idaho Statesman
Katy Moeller
July 7, 2018
"One can imagine what it would be like for paramedics, firefighters and others to see the horrific injuries of these victims — these small young children," Murphy said in a phone interview from Seattle. "It may be more than a human being is meant to bear."
Boise Police Chief Bill Bones was visibly emotional during a press conference Sunday, July 1. "These are victims who in their past homes have fled violence from Syria, Iraq and Ethiopia," Bones said.
Meiying Wu
The emotional calluses of a 25-year career in law enforcement appeared to have been ripped away when Boise Police Chief Bill Bones stepped in front of the cameras at City Hall West on July 1.
The towering, soft-spoken chief choked back tears as he described the horror of the night before — an "evil" attack that left the largest number of victims in an incident in department history.
Nine people were stabbed, including six children, who were at or near a 3-year-old's birthday party at the Wylie Street Station Apartments just off State Street. All of the victims were members of refugee families from Syria, Iraq and Ethiopia.
"Obviously, I have cried during this event," Bones said a couple of days later in an interview at his office. "Thankfully, I was alone yesterday when I found out that we had lost our little girl — because she really is, in a part, she is a daughter of the entire community. She's a part of who we are."
"I have a department of people that got into this job, into this career, because they're here to take care of others, to help others. We try hard to get them to take care of themselves," he said. "None of us do the best job at that."read more here
Here is a bullshit article for you about a veteran getting hurt at home, but complaining about having to drive to the VA hospital hours away instead of going to a local hospital for something that has nothing to do with his disability!
Lack of VA hospital in Jacksonville means long drives for certain types of care
One Friday night Hawkins tripped over a hose that someone left out after watering a tomato garden. The tomatoes were held up by a metal rod; and when he fell, the rod went through his ear. He got the rod out and the bleeding stopped, but it 11:30.“I looked at the time and realized there was no VA [clinic] open, and the closest treatment was either to drive to Lake City or to Gainesville,” Hawkins said.
If he is 100%, and getting his healthcare from the VA, all he had to do was call them, explain the emergency and they would have covered it. That is the way it has worked for a very long time.
So why didn't he get it taken care of at a local hospital?
Hawkins pointed out that the injury to his ear likely wouldn’t have been deemed an emergency by the VA, nor would have the serious cut on this finger he suffered a month or so ago. It too needed stitches, but, again, he went untreated.
In other words, he guessed.
I've been dealing with the VA and emergencies all my life. My Dad was 100% and my husband is 100%. Before the VA opened in Orlando, we carried private insurance on top of that even though we were told he would have been covered, we did not want to take a chance.
While the VA does cover all my husband's medical care, they bill out what is not tied to his claim. Before it was our private insurance and now it is Medicare. That leaves many unanswered questions in this article.
Does he have Medicare or any other insurance? He goes to our family doctor too! Why only use the VA for things that have nothing to do with his disability if it is too far to travel? Why didn't he use the Choice program everyone in Congress thinks is so great for our veterans?
One more thing they got wrong on this article is this part.
"Orlando, opened 2015. Current veteran population in metro area: 139,801"
But the news on that is while the groundbreaking was in 2008, it took a while for it to open.
Hospital representative Michael Strickler said the entire hospital will be open by early 2016. The 134-bed patient tower and emergency department are the last two to open.
So, there you go on lousy reporting once again. Remember, when I screw up reporting something, I do not get paid to do it. They do!
Stop Raising Harmful Awareness
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 7, 2018
What does Combat PTSD Wounded Times stand for?
Combat means to fight and the message we're delivering is, PTSD is a wound and everyone has the ability to fight to heal. Plain and simply. Right?
Apparently not considering the headlines of news publications from coast to coast continue to push a number of lives they think were lost instead of pushing how to change the outcome.
This is a headline from WTKR
Marine Corps veteran to complete suicide awareness walk
While that may seem like a helpful thing to do, it isn't. It is not because the "number" does not represent reality. The VA did not say it was "22 a day" when we consider the detail of the reports they released since 2012.
The number "22" was taken from limited data from just 21 states. The report cautioned against using it as the definitive outcome of tremendous loss of life far beyond what wars have claimed.
This is what was in the article from WTKR
On average, 22 veterans and active duty personnel take their own life every day. That number is even more staggering when you consider the fact that veterans make up just 7 percent of the population, but account for 20 percent of all suicides in this country, according to the group.
Mindful of the fact that the suicide rate among first responders is also rising, the Virginia Beach Fire Department is once again answering the call for support from END 22.
Well, maybe that is a approbate title of "End 22" since we need to end that conversation. It does not work!
The latest report from the VA has the known number of veterans committing suicide has not changed, even though we lost millions of veterans since 1999 when the known number was also 20 a day. As bad as that is, there are only 22 states tracking the number of veterans in their state committing suicide.
What makes all this worse is that the numbers released from the VA only go up to 2015. What happened to the following three years is anyone's guess. That is the biggest problem of all since too many are "guessing" instead of knowing.
What we do not know is how many are left out of the reports.
Honorably discharged veterans were considered veterans but when there is anything other than that type of discharge, they are not even considered worth mentioning. Does not seem to matter that many of them had multiple deployments, but were kicked out because of untreated PTSD.
Veterans who moved out of the country are not counted in any of these reports. The list goes on, but basically, you get the idea of what all these "efforts" to raise awareness do not know. All of the reports from the VA also state the vast majority of veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50, yet these men and women have been left out of news reports and all the "awareness" being passed around on social media.
If they are not talking about the reality veterans face on a daily basis, lazy reporters won't report the facts and then the general public, contrary to also held belief, are not on social media, will assume "awareness" shared is all they need to know.
This has turned into a billion dollar industry with results akin to a great advertising campaign for snake oil salesmen hawking their useless cure!
What we do know is that the Department of Defense releases quarterly reports for all branches. Sure, they are a little late of the releasing of the data, but it gives us an idea of what is actually failing, since the numbers have remained consistently averaging 500 a year since 2012.
This shows the numbers of active duty suicides from 2017, along with a chart from 2012.
Since the VA is unable to update their research, we need to consider those numbers as a basis for understanding what is not working so we can stop sucking at preventing suicides.
Social media is robbing veterans and others of the chance to find hope that their next day can be better than this lousy day is!
How do expect the outcome to be changed if we continue to repeat what failed?
In 2013 The Warrior Saw, Suicides After War was published using publicly available data and news reports proving that Congress, the DOD and the VA spent billions, but had nothing to show for any of it.
Military and veteran suicides are higher even though billions are spent every year trying to prevent them. After years of research most can be connected to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD has been researched for 40 years yet most of what was known has been forgotten. Families are left blaming themselves for what they were never told. Reporters have failed to research. Congress failed at holding people accountable. The military failed at giving them the help they need. We failed to pay attention.
We paid for it with our taxes, but veterans paid for it with their lives.
We should have changed the conversation that was started back in 2003! That is when I wrote For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle. Which is still for sale even though the publisher Xlibris was supposed to stop printing it!
and this was the answer back then!
But why should they be different than all the others making money off the suffering that has been going on for decades?
Veterans and families cannot afford lawyers to do a class action lawsuit against the DOD, the VA or the people making money while producing a delusion!
We're all just supposed to settle for what we are told and they get away with it because no one can afford to sue for wrongful deaths in the thousands any more than I can afford to sue Xlibris!
Back in 2003 I wanted to warn people about what was coming on PTSD and suicides. I ended up giving the book away for free, considering I was not making money from my work or my life. I am still not making money trying to save lives. Hell, that is what this was supposed to be about! Wasn't it?
