Marine Clay Hunt's life causes action for saving others

Combat veteran, Marine, Clay Hunt committed suicide and his life mattered so much more than he thought it did.

A Tragic Veteran Suicide Spawns An Entrepreneurial Call to Action
Forbes
Shaun So, Contributor
January 24, 2013

Sergeant Clay Hunt killed himself on March 31, 2011. He was a 28-year old Marine Corps Purple Heart recipient with multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hunt also suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.

At his funeral, two close friends and fellow co-founders of Team Rubicon, Sgt. William McNulty and Sgt. Jacob Wood discovered that Hunt had additional Marine Corps friends that had actually resided within a 15-mile radius where Hunt had lived.

However, none of those nearby Marines knew Hunt was in need, let alone that he was just a few miles away.

POS REP, short for ‘position report’, was conceived by McNulty, Wood and Anthony Allman, another military veteran-turned entrepreneur, to prevent the next Clay Hunt tragedy.

This mobile application provides a location-enabled, social network exclusively for the military veteran community. While POS REP’s main purpose is to reconnect veterans who served together, its underlying significance is to connect veterans to peers and resources within their communities.
read more here

Mom and twins die, Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people in malpractice suit

Just one more example of "pro-life" only matters when they want it to. Money meant more to them this time so they said the twins were not "people" and used the law to get away with it. Would be nice if they felt that way all the time instead of just when they want to or stuck to their claimed beliefs even when it meant they would have to pay a price.

Catholic hospital argues fetuses aren’t people in malpractice suit
JAN 24, 2013
Yes, Catholic Health Initiatives' latest move is hypocritical, but they are following the law. That's a good thing
BY KATIE MCDONOUGH

There is something a little off about the Internet gloating surrounding a malpractice lawsuit that got a Catholic hospital to do a 180 on fetal personhood.

Sure, it is hypocritical for a Catholic hospital to reverse course on their “commitment to the unborn” just because there is money at stake. But by rejecting the wrongful death claim filed after two 7 month-old fetuses died in the womb, Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit that runs roughly 170 health facilities in 17 states, is finally following the law, rather than fighting it. And that’s a good thing.

Lori Stodghill was 31-years old, seven-months pregnant with twin boys and feeling sick when she arrived at St. Thomas More hospital in Cañon City on New Year’s Day 2006. She was vomiting and short of breath and she passed out as she was being wheeled into an examination room. Medical staff tried to resuscitate her but, as became clear only later, a main artery feeding her lungs was clogged and the clog led to a massive heart attack. Stodghill’s obstetrician, Dr. Pelham Staples, who also happened to be the obstetrician on call for emergencies that night, never answered a page. His patient died at the hospital less than an hour after she arrived and her twins died in her womb.
read more here

Vietnam veteran killed 12 hours after brother died

Vietnam vet dies after struck by car in Hillside
By Rosemary Regina Sobol
Tribune reporter
January 24, 2013

A Vietnam veteran who had just lost his brother to cancer died early Thursday after he was hit by a car while crossing a street near his Hillside apartment, authorities said.

"It's just very tragic," said Hillside Police Chief Joe Lucaszek.

William Higbee, 63, was crossing Wolf Road near Washington Street in his wheelchair around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday when he was struck by a 1998 Chevrolet Lumina that was head south, Lucasek said.

Police reached out to his family after he died and learned his brother had died of cancer 12 hours before the accident, Lucaszek said. “It was really sad,’’ he said.
read more here

Disabled Vietnam veteran credited for saving 4-year-old fire victim

Disabled Vietnam veteran credited for saving 4-year-old fire victim
Published January 24, 2013
FoxNews.com

A Vietnam veteran in Chicago is being credited for saving a 4-year-old girl's life after she caught fire in her bed.

"I believe that she was being sheltered by God already," Clyde Harden, 55, a disabled veteran, told The Chicago Tribune. "Somebody was there for her."

Harden was alerted to the Wednesday night fire after he heard his neighbor yell, "my sister's on fire," The Sun-Times Media Wire reported. He rushed to the girl's apartment and used a towel to smother the flames. He said the girl appeared to be badly burned and in shock.

"She was crying and she put her head on my shoulder," he said. "It's scary because the burns were so severe," he said, according to the wire. At that time, another neighbor poured water on the flaming mattress.
read more here

Fort Bliss Wellness Fusion Campus fighting suicide trend

Military suicide rates on the rise with 349 in 2012
FOX14 News
By Gina Benitez

FORT BLISS, Texas — Military suicides are on the rise, and although combat is winding down, some experts predict it could go even higher this year.

Fort Bliss is the military institution with the lowest suicide rate per capita in the country. However, the same can't be said across the board.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called military suicides an epidemic.

"It's OK to seek help; things happen. We understand," said Major Jorge Almodovar.

The Fort Bliss Wellness Fusion Campus is the only one of its kind on military institutions across the country. It combines all the services available to soldiers that were independent in the past and then some.

"We make a complete assessment and then we develop some training for them to identify those issues that they can see along their careers," Aldomovar said.

Issues range anywhere from physical, emotional to mental. The ultimate goal, Aldomovar said, is to change the culture of the military.

"I think in the past, we look at a soldier that is seeking help as a weakness. We want to see that as a strength," Almodovar said.
read more here