Showing posts with label Walter Reed Hospital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walter Reed Hospital. Show all posts

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Stellate Ganglion Block No Better Than Placebo for PTSD

The VA has been spending millions on useless PTSD research It isn't as if they just discovered the price being paid by servicemen and women. They discovered it about 100 years ago and all hands on deck were called in the 70's.

Stellate ganglion block offers hope for PTSD treatments was one of those "projects" that was supposed to take care of servicemembers but as reported today, it didn't work.
Stellate Ganglion Block No Better Than Placebo for PTSD
MEDSCAPE
Nancy A. Melville
March 26, 2015

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — While promising preliminary research has shown some benefits of stellate ganglion block (SGB) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new randomized controlled trial shows the treatment is not superior to sham injection.

An increasing number of case reports showing benefits from SGB for PTSD for several months after treatment has generated much buzz in the popular press, and the treatment has recently been featured on various TV programs.

One of the largest studies of the treatment to date was a case series involving 166 patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in which 70% of military service members with PTSD reported significant improvement of their PTSD symptoms, with benefits persisting beyond 3 and 6 months after the procedure.

Robert N. McLay, MD, PhD, lead author of the new study, said such improvements were seen even in a small case series of patients with PTSD at his center, prompting the placebo-controlled study.

"We were hoping for a benefit," Dr McLay, of the Naval Medical Center, in San Diego, California, told Medscape Medical News.

"We tried this out informally in our clinic and did see some benefit in about half of patients, but in this more formal study we were not able to reproduce those results."
read more here

This is from Eyewitness News 2010
Dr. Lipov says when a traumatic event is experienced, nerves in the brain sprout like flowers. By applying the local anesthetic, the nerve growth factor returns to normal.

In a recent study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, doctors found the shot provided "immediate, significant and durable relief" for two soldiers who didn't respond to pills. Other doctors say more safety studies need to be done before the treatment is widely used.

The real questions we should be asking is, "If any of this worked, then why didn't it work? If it didn't work then why did we still have to pay for it? When do we get the tax funds back so we can invest in what does work? Who is being held accountable for all this wasted time and money? The biggest question I have is, who is going to bring back the lives lost after all these years?

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mom of Combat Wounded Son Still Doesn't Know Why He Died

2 years after N.J. soldier who lost legs in Afghanistan dies, mom still wants to know why
NJ.com
By Alex Napoliello
March 18, 2015
"Today is my son's 2 year angelversary," she writes. "He fought for 20 months at Walter Reed to recover from his injuries in Afghanistan. While I am forever thankful and grateful for those extra 20 months, he was still taken from us way too soon. I miss him each and every day."
"Puppy Derek" was named in honor of U.S. Army Sgt. Derek Tra McConnell. During the Star-Spangled Spectacular in Baltimore in September 2014, "Puppy Derek" made some new Marine friends.
(Courtesy of Janet Lally)

PARSIPPANY — Two years ago today, Siobhan Fuller-McConnell's 23-year-old son died shortly after being released from a military medical center. She says she's still wants to know why.

"I try not to think about it," Fuller-McConnell said. "I try to do things that keep his memory alive. ... I will never officially get word from Walter Reed about what happened to Derek."

U.S. Army Sgt. Derek Tra McConnell lost his legs and suffered severe blast wounds in July 2011 after two improvised explosive devices hit him while he was on patrol in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

He seemed to be doing well, recovering at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., learning to walk with his prosthetic legs.

He and his fiancé, Krystina Dressler, were to marry soon after they won an online contest for an $80,000 wedding.

But those plans vanished on March 18, 2013.
read more here
Double amputee Afghanistan Veteran Derek McConnell passed away

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Congress Protecting Phoney Boloney Jobs Instead of Veterans

Whenever a member of Congress decides to do something for veterans, it seems as if every other member of Congress jumps right on it without a single clue about what is in the bill. Everytime I read about yet another bill on the topic of suicides tied to military service, I think of Blazing Saddles. (Guilty pleasure confession this is one of my favorite movies.)

Governor William J. Le Petomane
Holy underwear! Sheriff murdered? Innocent women and children blown to bits? We've got to protect our phoney-baloney jobs, gentleman!

We must do something about this immediately! Immediately, immediately! Harrumph, harrumph!"

[Other staff 'harrumph' as well] I didn't get a "harrumph" out of that guy!

Hedley Lamarr: Give the governor "harrumph"

Staff member: Harrumph!

Governor William J. Le Petomane: You watch your ass.

This morning I opened my email and discovered a report on Senator Joe Donnelly pushing more bills right after the bubble wrap was cut off his last one. Why? Why is he repeating the same "efforts" that have come out of other senators decades ago that didn't work?

For Donnelly it isn't just one bill but a "package of legislation designed to reduce military suicides" leaving out the most vital piece of information. It's all been done before and didn't work.

Yet one more reason as to why I have no tolerance for politicians.

The other members are also pushing their own bills naming them after veterans failed within their own state. Why? So it will appear as if they really care about them and their families. Had that been true, in any decade, suicides would have gone down instead of up.

If any of them were really telling the truth then the VA would have no problems at all. Considering the first House Veterans Affairs Committee was sitting on their harrumphs back in 1946 there should be no veteran waiting for care they were promised.

We're reading the news reports about veterans falling apart all over the country year after year and then reading how this Representative and that Senator are doing this and that from reporters pretending they actually know something about any of this. Too bad they forget all too easily what they reported on last year when the outcome of past efforts caused more heartaches for far too many other families.

Top that off with taxpayers not only pay the salaries of politicians, they pay for the gazillionth bill because they love veterans and want to only see the best for them. The last thing they think of is how is making money off these bills and who is just trying to get votes for doing them. They want to believe veterans matter so much that members of Congress are doing things for them instead of to veterans.

What's wrong with all the service groups out there making sure reporters get it right? Why haven't they stepped up and said that it's all been done before? After all, reporters just repeat what they are told. The days of true investigative reporting ended a long time ago. That is why it was so shocking to read what the Dallas Morning News and NBC managed to do when they reported on yet one more failure the public was deluded enough to think worked.

(I posted on these stories as they happened but linking back to the original reports since they are still active. Thank God!)
Injured Heroes Broken Promises The war after the war
Wounded soldiers allege mistreatment in the Army’s Warrior Transition Units

Dallas News
David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks of NBC
November 22, 2015
KILLEEN — At a shop that sells vacation packages to soldiers in the Killeen Mall, there’s a shrine to Zackary Filip. Newspaper clippings, congratulatory letters from congressional leaders and a large poster of Filip in his Army combat uniform cover a wall.

The Denton native was named 2010 Soldier of the Year by Army Times for his actions while in near-constant combat in Afghanistan and just afterward during the Fort Hood massacre.
“Injured Heroes, Broken Promises,” a joint investigative project between The Dallas Morning News and NBC5 (KXAS-TV), examines allegations of harassment and mistreatment in the U.S.’ Warrior Transition Units, which were created to serve soldiers with physical and psychological wounds. Reporters David Tarrant, Scott Friedman and Eva Parks based their findings on dozens of interviews with soldiers, Army officials and medical experts, and hundreds of pages of military documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.


Filip, a combat-hardened medic, saved the life of a civilian police officer and treated many other victims of the Fort Hood attack that killed 13 and wounded 32 others five years ago.

By the age of 24, with a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal with the V device for valor, Filip looked forward to a long, successful military career.

But the Army he served with such distinction wasn’t there for him when he most needed its help, he says.

When he began suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, he entered a special program — a Warrior Transition Unit — for soldiers in need of ongoing outpatient treatment. He expected to find the kind of care he needed to heal.

Instead, he once again felt under attack.

Entrusted to guide him through the greatest crisis of his life, those in charge of the Warrior Transition Unit, or WTU, showed him and others disrespect, belittling and treating some unfairly and at times disregarding their physical abilities and mental health.

“WTU made everything a lot worse — especially mentally. And I thought it was going to be great,” said Filip, who spent two years in the Fort Hood WTU until his discharge in September 2013.

Related Stories
Part 2: Wounded soldiers have complained of supervisors’ disrespect, unfair treatment and intimidation
Complaints about wounded warriors’ treatment pile up
Benn sought to help, but PTSD hindered him
Editorial: Wounded warriors deserve better
Army orders new training for Warrior Transition Units

NBC 5 takes a closer look at Warrior Transition Units
Hundreds of soldiers allege mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units
Injured soldiers question training of WTU leaders
Feb 21, 2015
NBC 5 Investigates has learned that the U.S. Army has launched a new investigation inside Fort Hood’s Warrior Transition Unit (WTU), looking at claims of harassment and abuse.

The investigation comes after NBC 5 Investigates partnered with The Dallas Morning News for a six-month investigation that revealed hundreds of complaints from injured soldiers who said commanders harassed, belittled them and ordered them to do things that made their conditions worse at three Warrior Transition Units in Texas: Fort Hood, Fort Bliss and Fort Sam Houston.

How about they start way back to when these units were set up after the Walter Reed scandal in 2007?

This is what we were told back then and it may sound very familiar.
Army Activates New Warrior Transition Brigade at Walter Reed

Each company will have a physician and staff who work with specialists in the hospital to develop a patient care plan for each patient-soldier. Before, the military medical system assigned primary care managers from a pool of managers scattered within Walter Reed. Now a 25-member cell of physicians, nurses and support staff will focus only the primary care needs of those in the brigade, Bell said. The goal is to develop a seamless program that improves access and continuity of care, he said.

The brigade has been receiving cadre for the past seven weeks. Most of the company-level leaders are in place, and all should be here by the end of May. Hartless said the first task for the brigade leaders will be earning the trust of the patient-soldiers.

“We have to gain their trust. They’re scared,” he said. “Things are changing again for them. Some are getting new case managers. They are getting new platoon sergeants. They are going to have a squad leader. It’s unknown for them. They already trust the medical part.”

Each staff member will undergo a cadre training plan that includes 55 briefings on topics ranging from an overview of the medical command, the duties of squad leaders and platoon sergeants, and the medical and physical board process.

Still, Hartless said, he will be keeping a close eye on how the new cadre and patient-soldiers interact.

“I have no problem pulling a cadre member aside and saying, ‘Hey, remember who you are talking to. This guy’s had a traumatic brain injury,’” Hartless said. “He has an appointment at 10 at physical therapy tomorrow. You need to make sure he gets there. You may have to take him. You have to know where your people are. Go check up on them.”

The first company to stand up April 27 is made up of the National Guard and Reserve soldiers receiving care at the center. After June 8, when the other two companies are staffed, those soldiers will be integrated into the other companies down to the squad leaders.

“They shouldn’t be separate. A soldier is a soldier is a soldier,” Hartless said. “It’s one fight, one team. That’s what we are going to do here.”

As you can see it wasn't fixed back then and it led to servicemembers being discharged by the thousands, betrayed by the system that was set up in response to a crisis reported on in the Washington Times. Hell, by 2010, things hadn't changed much either. Tom Ricks reported this for Foreign Policy
Here’s how screwed up the Army’s Warrior Transition Units are: Genuinely sick soldiers try to get out of using them

After 2012 with the record high for military suicides I wrote The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, because families were pissed off all this was going on and the general public had no clue what members of Congress were doing about any of it.

Nothing will be fixed as long as members of Congress are more interested in protecting their jobs instead of protecting the lives of our troops and veterans. After all, they put their lives on the line while politicians just talk about honoring them.

In most cases, it is just one huge slap on the back and "We must do something about this immediately! Immediately, immediately! Harrumph, harrumph!"

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Marine Robert Richards Life Remembered

Marine sniper saluted as more than the controversial video that defined him 
The Washington Post
By Greg Jaffe
Published: February 24, 2015
He was still recovering at Walter Reed when he learned that one of his Marines, Josh Desforges, had been killed.

"That was the only time I heard him crack," his mother said. "He was begging to go back to Afghanistan, even though he had a hole in his throat."


Edward Deptola, center, was Robert Richards's platoon sergeant. Deptola and others gathered to remember Richards on the night before his interment.
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times. In it, Rob Richards and three other Marine Corps snipers are seen urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters they had just killed.

"Total dismay" were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used to describe the video when it surfaced on the Internet in January 2012. "Utterly deplorable," agreed then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Richards's career in the military was finished.

More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose.

Now an ammunition can carrying his cremated remains sat on the table of a hotel bar in Arlington, Va., as his family, friends and fellow Marines swirled around it.

Almost everything about war is complicated, messy or morally fraught; in this case even more so. A Marine vilified by his country's leaders and court-martialed for "bringing discredit to the armed forces" would soon be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's most hallowed ground. On this mid-February night before the funeral, dozens who knew Richards beyond those 38 seconds gathered to celebrate his life.
read more here

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

American Sniper Heavy Silence Because No One Listens

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 27, 2015

There has been a lot of debate about American Sniper. Maybe it is a good thing since there is a lot that isn't getting talked about, or at least it could have been. The trouble is when you have people taking political sides the troops and veterans are slammed right in the middle and the movie is more important than the one playing in their dreams every night.


"The View" Co-hosts Agree "American Sniper" is a Seminal War Film


"There was heavy silence at Walter Reed."
"Bravery has consequences."



This is from what Mike Barnicle wrote about American Sniper
At a screening in L.A. and New York, the crowd cheered. In Dallas there was no cheering. And when the film was screened at one site in Washington there was only a heavy silence.

Where was that location? Walter Reed National Medical Center, where the wounded, the limbless, the brain damaged are treated for injuries that linger forever and are largely forgotten by a country and a culture where more attention is paid to deflated footballs than the needs and cost of caring for men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Paul Rieckhoff said that veterans have been trying to get attention for a decade. Really? Seriously?

What about the decades other veterans not only tried to get attention but fought to put everything in place that was available for their generation? Oh, I'm sorry it isn't popular to remind anyone how long all of this has been going on. All you have to do is sit and talk a while with a Vietnam veteran who had to wait years for a claim in the 80's and 90's, months for an appointment with a VA doctor or even longer for a fee base outsourced appointment.  Ya, that's right they were doing all of this way back then.

Hey why not add in the fact that there were caregivers way back then too? We had to figure out how to raise our family, work, take care of our husbands and usually our elderly parents (mostly veterans as well) and then figure out how make sure it was all held together while we fell apart without any money or help to do it. I lost count how many jobs I had in the over 30 years I've been with my husband.

As stupid as the reporting has been saying Afghanistan has been the longest war, and everything else they seem all too easily to forget, none of this is new and that is what pisses off other veterans the most.

For all the bills, all the money, all the news, all the claims made about addressing it, the numbers of lives lost to suicide increased. The number of veterans trying to kill themselves increased. These numbers went up even though there is a growing list of organizations begging for money and attention. Even though there is the Suicide Prevention Hotline with thousands of calls a year. Even though there are reporters all over the country telling heartbreaking stories of them facing off with police officers and SWAT Teams every week.

Watch: 'The Nightly Show' Aims at 'American Sniper' Debate with War Veteran, Critic and Comedy Guests

We're not talking about the fact that PTSD hits all generations and older veterans have been waiting longer, suffering longer and begged for something to be done before others followed them into the abyss.

What the hell is going on here?

We're not talking about how veterans are not able to go and watch the movie if they have PTSD because they won't sit in a huge, dark room with strangers behind them especially when they know their past is going to kick up its heels and smack them in the head.

I talked to a friend of mine and he said he's waiting for it to come on cable so that he can watch it and walk out of the room if it gets to be too much for him. Other veterans said they don't need to see a Hollywood movie, no matter how good it is supposed to be, since they just watched their own movie last night.

Wives like me won't go to see it either. While I totally appreciate it, I just don't want to watch it. I haven't watched any of them in years. Living with it on a daily basis and covering their stories for Wounded Times has zapped my emotional core to the point where sitting in a movie theater to watch more suffering is the last thing I want to do.

I do think you should see it if you want to get some kind of idea what it is like. Friends have seen it and said they understood more and they cried.

This is one of the first videos I made on PTSD. It is from 2006.

Our generation has been trying to help the younger generation catch up to what it took us decades to learn. They didn't want to listen. Our generation tried like hell to get Congress to change what they were doing. They didn't want to listen. We tried to get reporters to pay attention long before Afghanistan and Iraq but they didn't want to listen.

It seems as if everyone is talking about their opinion of this movie without listening to what is still happening because no one listened before.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Orlando Rocked for Cpl. Adam Devine

Adam's road to recovery has not ended yet and has had over 60 surgeries so far. Cpl. Adam Devine's facebook page.
Join Elbows for Adam This is a page for Adam. Please use this page to send well wishes and comments for Adam, Michelle, and Amya as they proceed down the road of recovery!!!

Adam Devine, Dixon IL had a longtime dream to serve his country as a United States Marine! He completed this goal and then some! We all love you Adam!

Adam played hockey as a kid, loved football and track - throwing. He worked hard at all he did. Striving to be the best he can be - always. He did well in sports in high school. Playing on the varsity football team during the 2007 run to the Elite Eight, Adam was a key member of the team. He competed in 2007 and 2008 Illinois State High School Track and Field in Shot Put. He applied to Augustana College in Moline, IL and was accepted for the 2008-09 year, paying football for the Vikings. However, college was not his dream - the Marine Corps was...so Adam worked very hard to meet the standards required and surpassed those qualifications.

Along the way to meeting those high standards of the USMC, Adam met a beautiful young lady named Michelle. It didn't take a whole lot and they fell in love! Adam and Michelle were married in January 2010, after Adam graduated from boot camp. In late May, a gorgeous little bundle of joy, Amya, joined the family. She is the apple of her daddy's eye!

Adam serves in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, based in Twentynine Palms, Calif. and has been a machine gunner with the Marines since April.

On Wednesday, December 28, about 12:30 p.m. in Afghanistan, or about 2 a.m. Central time, Adam was wounded in action by an improvised explosive device (IED). He was hospitalized at Bastion Role III Medical Treatment facility in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, transferred to another facility, in the Middle East, then transferred to base in Germany and soon will be treated at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, MD.

Adam is in stable condition, however seriously injured. He has suffered lower extremity amputations, however...those of us that know him, know that this will never stop him!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting this fabulous family at the 3rd Annual Orlando Rocks Fundraiser. This Marine and his family have been through terrible times, lots of trials and tribulations but side by side, they managed to do the nearly impossible for most people.

It was easy to tell when there is this much love, nothing can stop them!

Here are some pictures of the event and the video will go up later today so check back. There was also a news station out there interviewing Adam and I'm checking right now to find the report.s
UPDATE Here is the first video
Cpl. Devine got a call from Graceland! The nurse of Elvis Presley, Marion Justice Cocke spoke with Adam.

Mr. Postman got the crowd on their feet!


Orlando Rocks and Rolls
Orlando Rocks Patriotism Lives

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Florida Comfort Food Helped Air Force Nurse in Afghanistan

Nurse saves lives during Afghanistan deployment
Chugiak Eagle River Star
Chris McCann
Published: 2014
Air Force Capt. Tavia Leonard, an intensive-care nurse assigned to the 673d Medical Group, recently returned from Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, where she worked at the Craig-Joint Theater Hospital for four months. U.S. AIR FORCE JUSTIN CONNAHER

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON — The improvised explosive device detonated early — in his hand.

The 16-year-old Afghan boy was rushed to the Craig Joint Hospital on Bagram Air Field, missing a hand, an eye, and a lot of blood. Third-degree burns covered nearly half of his body.

Air Force Capt. Tania Leonard, an intensive-care nurse, was ready.

“He was an angry little fellow,” she said. “But after a while, he became the most polite kid. I may not have reached the masses in Afghanistan, but I hope in his village, he’ll tell people how we took care of him.”

Leonard joined the Air Force hoping to be an ICU nurse. Her first assignment, however, was at the pediatric unit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany. She was disappointed, but that billet prepared her for the future.
An unexpected motivation came in a care package from a friend — a jar of pickled okra. The Jacksonville, Florida, native said she was ecstatic to get such a creature comfort.

“That was the best day ever,” she said. “I was taking pictures with the okra. Oh, and there were crab legs Fridays. I was on the hunt Fridays; I’ve got to have crab legs. I love seafood. And those little comforts were just great.”
read more here

Monday, December 22, 2014

Sgt. Jamie Jarboe Shot by Sniper in Afghanistan, Killed By Medical Error

When you read the rest of this story, and I really hope you do, keep one thing in mind that the DOD and the VA had less doctors, nurses, claims processors and mental health worker than they had after the Gulf War, but they just hoped we didn't notice.
Wounded veterans return to unprepared medical system
Harvard researcher says federal government lacks a plan to care for them
Kansas Health Institute
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
Dec. 22, 2014
Esther Klay
Melissa Jarboe documents the medical treatments her husband, Jamie, endured after being shot during a tour of duty in Afghanistan in April 2011. Jamie Jarboe underwent dozens of surgeries, including a procedure in which his esophagus was perforated, before he died in March 2012. Melissa Jarboe started a foundation called the Military Veteran Project and advocates for additional investments in veteran-supported nonprofits and the Veterans Administration health system.

TOPEKA — A sniper’s bullet tore through U.S. Army Sgt. Jamie Jarboe’s neck while he was on patrol during a tour of duty in Afghanistan in April 2011. The bullet shattered three vertebrae, severed Jarboe’s spinal cord and caused severe bleeding.

It was the kind of wound that almost certainly would have been fatal in previous conflicts.

But an Army medic was at Jarboe’s side almost immediately to keep him from bleeding out, and within 17 minutes of the shooting a helicopter lifted Jarboe out of the danger zone.

In less than an hour, he arrived at a state-of-the-art field hospital in Kandahar, where a medical team was waiting to stabilize him enough so that he could be evacuated from the country.

Jarboe arrived back on American soil paralyzed but alive and was able to get the best care the military had to offer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

But less than a year later he was dead from complications of surgery, one of several medical errors that his wife, Melissa Jarboe, documented in a self-published memoir about her husband’s last months.

“It wasn’t the sniper that shot him that killed him,” Melissa Jarboe, of Topeka, said in a recent interview.
read more here

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mighty Moms of Wounded at Walter Reed

The Mighty Moms of Walter Reed: Caring for children wounded in war
FOX News
By Jennifer Griffin, Justin Fishel
Published November 29, 2014
“Even under normal circumstances, moms take care of their young like fierce lionesses. But, when those children are catastrophically injured during war, there is no stopping their roaring maternal instincts.”

As Americans give thanks, there is one group of women they especially need to remember over the holidays: the Mighty Moms of Walter Reed. They pick up the pieces when their children return from war.

The stories of ten mothers and their children are featured in a new book, Unbreakable Bonds, The Mighty Moms and Wounded Warriors of Walter Reed.

Some of these mothers have spent up to four years living with their child at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland while they recover from multiple amputations and traumatic brain injuries.

The stories they tell of the challenges they face as caregivers to our nation's wounded warriors are searing, inspiring and uplifting. Fox News interviewed half a dozen of these mothers to learn what they’ve been through and the "band of mothers" that they have formed as a result.

Stacy Fidler's son Mark stepped on a mine while wearing a belt of grenades in Afghanistan. He and his mom have been at Walter Reed since October 2011.

Fidler said she finds support in the group of mothers. “We share the good things and the bad things,” she said. “We clap when they take their first steps and get sad when they get sent back to the ICU.”

Fidler, like many of the mothers, spends almost all her time at the hospital caring for her son.

“Eventually you just end up living in a hospital room. It's your home. You end up moving in, sleeping there, eating there, everything with your kid.”

One theme common among the Mighty Moms is that almost all of them had to leave their jobs and dedicate themselves to caretaking full time.
read more here

Friday, November 7, 2014

Camp Pendleton Marine Cpl. Josh Lopez Gets Special Homecoming

Disabled Marine to get free house
UT San Diego
By Teri Figueroa
NOV. 6, 2014

War-injured Marine Joshua Lopez, 25, walks with son Joshua Jr., and his wife Jennifer carries son Jalen, at left, as they unload belongings from a U-Haul truck Thursday. The family moved into a temporary apartment in Oceanside, and will stay until Saturday, when they move into a mortgage-free home in San Marcos.
Charlie Neuman

SAN MARCOS — Camp Pendleton Marine Cpl. Josh Lopez died — flat-lined more than four minutes, he said — in the first hours after he stepped on a homemade bomb during a 2012 firefight in Afghanistan.

The explosion threw him 20 feet in the air. He shattered his pelvis, broke his back. He would eventually lose his right leg below the knee.

About two weeks ago — 30 months, 40 surgeries, many skin grafts, and hours of rehab later — Lopez finished his treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.

The 25-year-old is finally coming home. Not to his hometown of Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, but to newly remodeled home in San Marcos.

The home — worth upward of $400,000 — will come to him mortgage-free from Building Homes for Heroes, a nonprofit group that gives away homes across the country to injured service members.
read more here

Sunday, November 2, 2014

PBS Craft In America Features Combat Wounded Veterans

Stafford Iraq veteran gains strength from his craft
FREE LANCE-STAR
BY LINDLEY ESTES
November 2nd, 2014
Judas Recendez, 35, of Stafford County will be featured in
Sunday’s episode of the PBS series ‘Craft in America.

In 2008, not long after he learned how to walk again, Judas Recendez threw a blue and brown glazed Japanese tea bowl on a potting wheel in California.

The 35-year-old Stafford County resident and U.S. Army veteran took a traditionally symmetrical design and gave it a new shape, carving deep scars into the façade of the bowl.

“It represents who I am,” he said. “It has a purpose, it’s useful, but it’s scarred.”

Recendez learned how to create pottery and ceramics in a studio at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center while in rehabilitation for wounds sustained in Iraq.

“Learning how to walk, you take it for granted so much,” he said. “It’s like breathing. You have to push through this amount of pain. It’s just really weird.”

It was in that studio at Walter Reed that Recendez first met Carol Sauvion, creator and director of the Peabody Award-winning PBS series “Craft in America.” His story inspired her to make an episode titled “Service,” which looks at the link between craft and the military.
read more here

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Joe Bacani has become the face of disabled American veterans

War hero shocked, humbled to be featured on veterans memorial
New York Post
By Maureen Callahan
October 5, 2014
The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, located south and west of the United States Capitol, will be dedicated on Sunday, October 5. New Yorker Joe Bacani is featured on the memorial.
Photo: Ron Sachs / CNP

Without ever meaning to, Joe Bacani has become the face of disabled American veterans.

He had been discharged from the Army in 2007 after taking sniper fire in Iraq and spending weeks at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in a wheelchair, learning how to walk again. A few years later, he got a package in the mail. Inside was a letter detailing the ongoing construction of a memorial dedicated to disabled vets. Also inside was a photo taken of Bacani in his wheelchair after he had just been awarded the Purple Heart. Would he allow this image to be used on a wall?

“I remember what I was thinking when that photo was taken,” Bacani says. “Half of me was like, ‘Hurry up and take this photo. I can’t wait till this ceremony’s over.’ And the other half of me was thinking, ‘What am I going to do? How am I going to move on?’ ”
read more here

Friday, September 26, 2014

Wounded Warrior Project Under Fire,,,,Again

Wounded Warriors Project Under Fire
Daily Beast
Tim Mak
September 26, 2014

Is a much-touted charity for American veterans everything it says it is?

Over the past decade, the Wounded Warriors Project has emerged to become one of the celebrated charities in the country – but with its prominence comes deeper scrutiny and criticism.

It’s a broad but closely held sentiment within the veterans' advocacy community: grumbling and critiques about the fundraising behemoth WWP has become, and whether it has been as effective as it could be.

In interviews, critical veterans’ advocates and veterans charged that the Wounded Warrior Project cares more about its image than it does about helping veterans; that they make public splashes by taking vets on dramatic skydiving trips but don’t do enough to help the long-term wellbeing of those injured in combat.

These criticisms come from a broad cross-section of veterans and their advocates, the vast majority of whom refused to speak on the record due to the sway the Wounded Warrior Project carries.

"They are such a big name within the veterans’ community. I don't need to start a war in my backyard," a double-amputee veteran who served in Iraq told The Daily Beast.

But granted anonymity, the vet gave voice to what is at the very least a perception problem for the WWP:
“They're more worried about putting their label on everything than getting down to brass tacks. It’s really frustrating."

The same veteran spoke of waking up in the hospital after an IED hit his supply truck – WWP, he said, had given him only trivial merchandise: a backpack, a shaving kit and socks.

“Everything they do is a dog and pony show, and I haven't talked to one of my fellow veterans that were injured… actually getting any help from the Wounded Warrior Project. I'm not just talking about financial assistance; I'm talking about help, period,” he said.
Ken Davis, a veteran who served in Iraq before being injured, is considered an "alumni" of the Wounded Warriors Project – even though he said he no longer wants to be associated with them.

"I receive more marketing stuff from them, [and see more of that] than the money they've put into the community here in Arizona," he told the Beast. "It's just about numbers and money to them. Never once that I get the feeling that it's about veterans."

He could have used a ride to a VA facility for health care, he said. But rather than receive practical assistance from the WWP, he got a branded fleece beanie.
read more here
Check back later for more on this

UPDATE First while you hear the term "Wounded Warrior" it is not always about Wounded Warrior Project.

The DOD used that term talking about another charity supplying homes for wounded servicemembers/veterans
07/07/2014
Wounded Warrior Receives New Home
United States
℠2014 - "Helping a Hero" has provided its latest home for a wounded warrior.

The DOD has Wounded Warrior Program
Prosthetic knee returns wounded warriors to active duty
Department of Defense
Apr 27, 2012
A new, computerized prosthetic knee joint is making a major difference for wounded warriors. Some are able to return to combat zones.

Wounded Warrior Surfers
Department of Defense
Invictus Games
London, City of, United Kingdom
℠2014 - U.S. wounded warriors traveled to London to compete in the 2014 Invictus Games
Here is more about the Wounded Warrior Program
The military's wounded warrior programs provide assistance and advocacy for severely wounded, ill, and injured service members, veterans, and their families. These programs assist service members and their families as they return to duty or transition to civilian life.

What are wounded warrior programs and what support do they provide?
Each of the individual branches of service operates a wounded warrior program to assist service members and their families with non-medical issues associated with the transition back to duty or to civilian life. The wounded warrior programs work with the service member and his or her medical team to develop a comprehensive recovery plan that addresses specific recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration goals. These programs provide lifetime support for the service member; eligibility for participation in the program does not conclude when the service member is discharged from a military treatment facility. Typical non-medical support provided by the wounded warrior programs may include, but is not limited to, assistance with the following:

Pay and personnel issues
Invitational travel orders
Lodging and housing adaptations for the wounded warrior
Child and youth care arrangements
Transportation needs
Legal and guardianship issues
Education and training benefits
Respite care
Traumatic brain injury/post-traumatic stress support services

The Wounded Warrior Project has been fantastic at raising awareness for themselves. Plain and simple. When you see the logo, you know exactly what it is tied to but few remember the real Marines in Iraq or the photographer there to take the iconic picture.

Shadow of Marines lives on in famous logo
The Marines Sgt. Matt LeVart carries injured Cpl. Barry Lange off the battlefield as members of India Company 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Division engage Iraqi soldiers in battle. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)

So what are they doing? What are they doing besides advertising for themselves?

Yet they made it worse by making it seem as if they were there with this video.
They have the video unlisted, which usually I would respect however since they have it on their page, it is available for anyone to watch.

They show commercials with heart tugging images of amputees and families in tears. Are they trying to say they are operating the rehabilitations facilities? Seems like most of the things being done are just like the ones done by Army Wounded Warrior Program amazing enough, also celebrating 10 years.

AW2 Eligibility and Enrollment
Commemorating a Decade of Impact for wounded, ill and injured Soldiers and Families
Click here to learn more about AW2's Tenth Anniversary.

The Army Wounded Warrior Program (AW2) is the official U.S. Army program that assists and advocates for severely wounded, ill and injured Soldiers, Veterans, and their Families, wherever they are located, regardless of military status. Soldiers who qualify for AW2 are assigned to the program as soon as possible after arriving at the Warrior Transition Unit (WTU). AW2 supports these Soldiers and their Families throughout their recovery and transition, even into Veteran status. Through the local support of AW2 Advocates, AW2 strives to foster the Soldier's independence. There are more than 18,200 Soldiers and Veterans currently in AW2.


In this video you see them delivering backpacks and yes, what was stated above with their logos on everything is true. That was their original mission statement. Now it has changed.
Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) takes a holistic approach when serving warriors and their families to nurture the mind and body, and encourage economic empowerment and engagement. Through a high-touch and interactive approach, WWP hopes to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation's history.


Uploaded on Sep 1, 2009
Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors. WWP serves to raise awareness and enlist the publics aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, to help severely injured service members aid and assist each other and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. For more information, please call visit www.woundedwarriorproject.org.
This is my video from long ago with the same song not used to raise funds but to actually raise awareness for the veterans!
They are fantastic at raising funds and spending money on commercials. As for the rest, I have exactly one advertiser blocked from this site. Guess who it is. They filed a lawsuit against another charity called Help Indiana Veterans because of accusations made based on complaints. The trouble is, if you pay attention to what they say, they never say they are doing anything. They don't claim to be running the hospitals doing the rehabs or supplying limbs or building homes or modifying them. They don't claim to be doing anything so if people are upset for giving them money, they need to ask themselves what they actually were thinking when they hit the donate button. Did they just assume or were they lied to? Honestly no matter how I feel about WWP, I never remember them saying anything wrong. They just didn't say anything at all. (Updated 3/21/15 to replace link to my video)

Monday, September 8, 2014

If you love a veteran, this will tick you off

UPDATE
Several times you'll hear "Wounded Warriors" but they are not talking about the "Project" but the "Program" run by the DOD. Huge difference.
How do I enroll in the wounded warrior program?
Enrollment in the program varies by branch of service.

Army. Soldiers and veterans who meet the eligibility requirements and are not currently enrolled in the program should contact the Army Wounded Warrior Call Center for assistance.
Nationwide (toll-free): 877-393-9058
Overseas DSN: 312-221-9113
Email: AW2@conus.army.mil

Marine Corps. Requests for assignment to a Wounded Warrior Regiment element can be initiated by the parent command, medical officer, medical case manager, WWR Detachment Officer-in-Charge, or the WWR Operations section. For more information on the referral process, you can contact the WWR Call Center.
Nationwide (toll-free): 877-487-6299
Navy. Enrollment in Navy Safe Harbor is voluntary. Sailors and Coast Guardsmen may self-refer to the program or be referred by a family member, their command leadership, or their medical team. For questions on enrollment eligibility, contact Navy Safe Harbor.
Nationwide (toll-free): 877-746-8563
Email: safeharbor@navy.mil

Air Force. Eligible airmen should contact the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program Office. The Air Force has no minimum disability rating requirement for the AFW2 program, as long as the injury/illness is combat/hostile related requiring long-term care that will require an MEB/PEB to determine fitness for duty.
Nationwide (toll-free): 800-581-9437
Email: afwounded.warrior@randolph.af.mil


Couple of reminders folks. The first one is that PTSD isn't new. Research on "shell shock" goes back to WWI and as for PTSD, research was cooking right along in the 70's leading up to this.
In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) nosologic classification scheme (2). Although controversial when first introduced, the PTSD diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatric theory and practice. From an historical perspective, the significant change ushered in by the PTSD concept was the stipulation that the etiological agent was outside the individual (i.e., a traumatic event) rather than an inherent individual weakness (i.e., a traumatic neurosis). The key to understanding the scientific basis and clinical expression of PTSD is the concept of "trauma."
That was just in case you were led to believe that PTSD was new. They ran out of excuses decades ago. How did they get away with leaving veterans suffer all this time? Here is a great indication of it. This CSPAN video is of our members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee going over all the troubles back in 2007. Clue here is, they've been repeating the same old tired speeches claiming to be upset, but the end result has been, well, BOHICA.

APRIL 12, 2007
Veterans' Disability Ratings The Senate Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs Committees held a joint hearing on the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments' disability rating systems and the transition of service members from the Defense Department to the Veterans Affairs Department. Among the issues they addressed were levels of disability assigned to departing service members, medical costs of long term care, the quality of medical services, and conditions at medical treatment facilities.




If you are a veteran, this is how it all happened. If you are a family member, this is why your family has been trapped in an endless cycle of tribulations. We've all been there. My husband's claim took 6 years and it was filed in the early 90's.

We know how bad it has been but the public thinks it is all new. Short attention span or too many reality TV shows, the truth is the press won't remind them of what we live with all the time.

One more thing to notice is all the Senators talking and still talking. Here are links to some of the things these people were talking about.
Walter Reed
Washington Post article by Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

U.S. PRESIDENT’S COMMISSION ON VETERANS’ PENSIONS

(Bradley Commission): Records, 1954-58


Yes, you read the date right.

We keep waiting to hear the problems have been fixed after members of Congress hold hearing after hearing, then we wonder if they ever heard enough to say "enough is enough" and fix it for real.

I know the speeches are hard to get through but unless you've tracked all these reports then you have no way of knowing exactly what they were fixing and when they knew they had to do it. The last question is, "Why didn't they fix all of this back then?" then maybe we can get to why we lost so many to suicide afterwards.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Double Amputee Iraq Veteran Getting New Home

Injured Army veteran from Greenfield gets big gift
KY3 News
Drew Douglas
Jul 27, 2014

GREENFIELD, Mo.
You might remember Sgt. Derrick Hurt, who lost both of his legs as a result of injuries he suffered in Iraq in 2003. We've followed Hurt's story since he came home from Iraq in 2003. We last checked in on him in 2012 as he was getting used to new prosthetic legs.

Hurt had another important day on Sunday.

He's come a long way since first learning to walk on prosthetic legs at Walter Reed Medical Center more than a decade ago.

"I can run, I can snow ski, scuba dive,," Hurt said.

He can't wear his legs all the time, however.

"You know you get sore spots on your legs and can't put them on, so you're in your chair," he said.
read more here

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Quadruple Amputee Iraq Veteran Gets New Limbs at Walter Reed

With transplanted arms and Army grit, a quadruple amputee soldiers on
Washington Post
Michael E Ruane
June 30, 2014
Marrocco, at occupational therapy at the Military Advanced Training Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. At the time of his injury, he was the first service member from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive the loss of four limbs.
(Michel du Cille/The Washington Post)

Brendan Marrocco sits at a table in the occupational therapy room and with the help of his teeth straps the exercise hooks to his wrists.

His new flesh-and-blood hands are not yet strong enough to grip the pull-up bar, so the hooks must do for now.

He slides out of his wheelchair, walks a few steps on the stumps of his legs and looks up at the bar.

“I have to prepare myself to do this,” he says. He reaches up, latches the wrist hooks to the bar and curses. “I’m so not ready right now.”

His occupational therapist, Joe Butkus, who is watching, says: “You got it. This is easy.”

Then the retired Army sergeant, who has no legs and has transplanted arms joined with plates and screws, begins.

One, two, three . . .
read more here

Friday, June 13, 2014

Steve Robinson Remembered As Tireless Fighter

Veteran Advocates Remember Steve Robinson
PBS Newshour
June 13, 2014

Steve Robinson, then director of veterans affairs at Veterans for America, appeared on the Feb. 21, 2007, PBS NewsHour about the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The death Thursday of Army veteran and advocate Steve Robinson, who made several appearances on the PBS NewsHour, prompted words of praise from veteran advocates and others who knew him. Robinson was 51 years old.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, wrote of Robinson: “He was a lion of a man. And the most important vets advocate of our time. He led the Gulf War Resource Center, mentored countless young vets, predicted most of the current VA problems, and never stopped fighting for our community.”

From Steven Wessels, founder of the Warrior Family Foundation: “Steve was known as a leader and great(est) champion for the veteran and military cause. Steve was the ally I needed when I imagined this endeavor at WFF. He never shied from setting me straight, altering my course, dusting me off and sending me back in, perhaps a bit more focused.”

Wessels recalled a story about Robinson’s dedication to his wife Patti. “When Steve was deployed (a decorated Ranger) he realized that a wedding ring wasn’t ideal in combat theatre. So, on his wedding ring finger he tattooed ‘Patti’. When I asked about it he answered, ‘Oh Wes, we are forever anyway, so it is actually better than a band of gold.’”

Robinson lent his perspective as an Army veteran and advocate on the NewsHour. In one appearance on Feb. 21, 2007, (video above) he described efforts to get problems with the patient care and facilities addressed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

“This issue isn’t about mold and mice. There’s a larger, systemic problem about capacity and case managers who are in the hospital addressing the individual needs of every service member and their family that come through that facility,” he said.
read more here

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Florida Combat Wounded Veteran Gets Community Support

Wounded soldier's surprise: New spot to call home
FLORIDA TODAY
R. Norman Moody
June 10, 2014

PALM BAY – Doug Fuller was in the store picking up paint for another job when he overheard talk about work on a house for a wounded soldier.

He introduced himself and immediately volunteered to paint the house.

"It sounded like a good cause," Fuller said. "These young men and women are literally risking their lives and their limbs for their country."

The house was purchased by Palm Bay Housing and Neighborhood Development Services and is being presented to Army Sgt. Justin Burdette, who lost both legs below the knee June 9, 2013 in an explosion while on patrol in the mountains in Afghanistan.

Burdette, a 2005 graduate of Palm Bay High, remains at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he has been fitted with prosthetic legs and continues therapy.

Workers are modifying the home to fit Burdette's needs.The house is expected to be finished and ready for the family by the end of July.

"It was a big surprise to us," Burdette's wife, Beth Burdette said. "It's kind of overwhelming. It's a relief because we won't have to adapt a house. We'll have our own place."
read more here

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Fallen comrade's family helps wounded Iraq War veteran reconnect

Fallen comrade's family helps wounded Iraq War veteran reconnect
Tampa Bay Times
John Romano
Times Columnist
Saturday, May 24, 2014

They took his leg. In the context of saving his life while a ruptured femoral artery spewed blood across the ceiling of the Walter Reed Medical Center, it seemed a small price to pay. But how do you explain that to a broken soldier? A pep talk and a prosthesis just don't seem like enough.

So began Brian Taylor Urruela's journey to the rest of his life. He hobbled away from the Army. From his hometown, too. He said goodbye to his family and every thought resembling emotion. The past felt like nothing but pain, and he was hellbent on leaving it all behind. That included the little boy. The one who looked just like the friend he'd been trying to forget.

What Urruela failed to realize during all of this was that the past doesn't always have to hurt. Sometimes it can heal.

Here is your Memorial Day picture: A mother, a child and an ex-infantryman walking side by side to a neighborhood park in South Tampa. As the holiday implies, the image is significant for the one who is missing.

Maj. David G. Taylor was killed by a roadside bomb outside Baghdad in 2006. He left behind a wife, Michelle, and an infant son, Jake, whom he'd forever kissed goodbye at 2 weeks old. He also left the four men who were riding with him on patrol that hot October afternoon. Another major whose arm was nearly destroyed, and a bodyguard who lost a leg. A gunner who lost both legs. And Cpl. Urruela.
read more here

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Boston Red Sox and Celtics pay visit to wounded soldier

Raynham soldier recovering from IED blast gets special visit from Boston Red Sox, Celtics
Taunton Daily Gazette
Marc Laroque
Taunton Gazette Staff Reporter
Posted Apr. 7, 2014

Submitted Photo Brandon Korona, 22, of Raynham, center, who is undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Md., after surviving an improvised explosive device blast last June in Afghanistan, poses for a photo with Boston Red Sox infielder Mike Napoli, left, last Tuesday at the Walter Reed Hospital. Korona's mother, Lori Downing, is at right.

RAYNHAM — A Raynham Army sergeant who survived the blast of a 200-pound improvised explosive device last year has an optimistic outlook on his recovery from a severe leg wound.

Brandon Korona, who is undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda, Md., said on Sunday that he is in high spirits after going through another surgery in February, as part of a lengthy treatment process. Korona, 22, said that the odds are in his favor that he will not have go through the amputation of his left leg or foot.

“Everything is going well,” Korona said. “I had another surgery to use my heel. They are working right now to just get me mobile again. I’m still working toward avoiding amputation. But that’s slowly becoming less of an option. I’m healing up better.”
read more here