Phoenix Vietnam Veteran had to turn to news station for help with PTSD from the VA

Veteran reached out to ABC15 after failing to get an appointment at the Phoenix VA

ABC 15 News
By: Sonu Wasu
Jan 11, 2020

“I don’t know what to do. You just feel lost. You’re alone,” said Ortman.
For Ortman, it’s been one disappointment after another since he got home from Vietnam. First he had to deal with the pain of seeing friends who didn’t make it home, then a homecoming he did not expect.

PHOENIX — Valley veteran, William Ortman, said he feels helpless and let down by the Phoenix VA healthcare system.

Ortman reached out to ABC15 to say that he has been trying to get an appointment with a mental healthcare counselor since November and all he got was the run around.

First, he was told his paperwork was lost and he would be outsourced to an outside healthcare facility due to a shortage of available counselors.

He was then told that a doctor forgot to sign off on his paperwork just to get him to go in for an assessment before they could sign off on any paperwork.

Ortman is one of the several veterans or veteran’s family members who reached out to ABC15 over the last few months, saying they feel let down by the VA healthcare system. Some of those veterans have since died by suicide. read it here

UPDATES on veterans with PTSD

Crime and just punishment
Police Chase Armored Vehicle Stolen From Virginia Military Base | NBC Nightly News 2018

An M577 armored personnel carrier was stolen from Fort Pickett, leading police on a 75-mile chase. 1st Lt. Joshua Yabut was charged with driving under the influence of drugs and eluding police in connection with the incident.

UPDATE

Soldier who drove armored vehicle from Fort Pickett to downtown Richmond given conditional release (ALI ROCKETT Richmond Times-Dispatch)

The first lieutenant told psychologists after his arrest that he believed he had been given orders to carry out a “confidential mission,” Watrous told the court. Yabut believed that Fort Pickett military personnel and state police were “all part of the ruse,” the prosecutor said. Records showed Yabut has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.

Determination and Redemption
Marine crawls over line to finish Boston Marathon he ran to honor his fallen comrades (Liz Roscher, Yahoo Sports Apr 16, 2019)

Micah Herndon, of Tallmadge, Ohio, crawls to the finish line in the 123rd Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2019, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Running the Boston Marathon can be a punishing but uplifting experience. And now Micah Herndon can talk about that experience firsthand.

Herndon, an Ohio native, ran the marathon on Monday, but his body began to give out as he approached the finish. With just a few feet left, he fell to the ground, unable to get up.

But he didn’t give up. Herndon decided to crawl the final feet of the race, crossing the finish line on his hands and knees.

UPDATE
Marine who crawled over Boston Marathon finish line set to return, ready for ‘redemption’ (Ryan Young Yahoo Sports Jan 10, 2020)

Micah Herndon’s body started to give out as he approached the finish line at the Boston Marathon last year, forcing him to crawl across the finish on his hands and knees.

Now, nearly one year later, the Marine veteran is ready to give it another go.

Herndon announced on Twitter on Friday that he will compete in the Boston Marathon on April 20th with a single word: ‘Redemption.’

Herndon was injured during an improvised explosive device attack during his tour in Afghanistan in 2010. He runs now to help cope with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Afghanistan, and to honor two of his best friends, Mark Juarez and Matthew Ballard, and British journalist Rupert Hamer, who all died in the attack.

Minneapolis VA Health Care Center failures connected to a Minnesota veteran’s suicide

Minneapolis VA cited second time for failures in the suicide of a veteran

Star Tribune
By Mary Lynn Smith
JANUARY 10, 2020

Hospital officials say improvements have already been made to stop such tragedies.

For the second time in 16 months, a federal watchdog agency has cited the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center for failures connected to a Minnesota veteran’s suicide.

IM MONE – ASSOCIATED PRESS

“I want to die,” the veteran said after he was admitted to the medical center in the spring of 2018. Three days later, a nurse overheard the man talking on the telephone, saying he was going to die in the hospital. “I want you to have the seven acres for all the help you have given me,” the vet told the other person on the line.

Hours later, police responded to a report that a patient had attempted suicide on VA property. Despite CPR, the vet died.

It was the second time within weeks that a veteran had taken his own life at the medical center.

“When someone dies by suicide, there are all kinds of questions about why, and one of the things you learn to tell yourself is that it’s no one’s fault,” she said. “But having a government report in black and white in front of you that says no, actually these things did go wrong in the care of that person, blows that out of the water. It’s devastating to know that someone could have done something that would have given your loved one a better chance at survival.”
read it here

Veteran Angela Peacock's new mission, to save survivors from PTSD

Female Vet Saves Lives with Heroic Fight for Improved Treatment for Trauma

KSFR
By MK MENDOZA
January 9, 2020

Former Sergeant Angela Peacock is a woman who has dedicated her life and her own survival to educating and helping others and is the definition of a true hero.

As we sit on the brink of troubling tension with Iran, many concerned about the possibility of another war, MK Mendoza is joined by Veteran Sergeant Angela Peacock who knows the personal cost of war and what post traumatic stress can do. She is not alone. Nearly one out of every ten people in our adult population is a veteran and in some NM counties, that number is close to every 2 out of ten.

Men make up the more than 90% of veterans. And women just less than ten percent. Yet close to a third of all suffer silently with Post Traumatic Stress. And though women still rank in the vast minority in the service, their population has nearly doubled since Vietnam.

She's found a new mission in life: To help all who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress and gives voice to an invisible population and another experience that can kill. Thirty percent of all people are estimated as overmedicated defined as being on more than 5 drugs at a time, and in our elderly population some studies estimate a rate of 67%.
read it here

Vietnam veteran lost both legs twice...after they were repossessed

UPDATE After uproar, 'a ray of sunshine:' VA promises vet new prosthetic legs

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it will make a new pair of prosthetic legs for a Mississippi veteran after his were repossessed two days before Christmas.

Jerry Holliman, a 69-year-old, two-time Bronze Star recipient, had his legs amputated over the past two years after his diabetes worsened.

Without legs, the once-independent Hattiesburg resident was resigned to a nursing home. Anxiety and depression dimmed his hope, Holliman said, and he felt trapped.
read it here

A company repossessed and returned a vet's prosthetic legs. He still can't use them

Mississippi Clarion Ledger
Giacomo Bologna
Jan. 9, 2020

Holliman served active duty in the U.S. Army twice — as an 18-year-old specialist who volunteered to fight in Vietnam and as a 53-year-old master sergeant in Iraq. He earned Bronze Stars in both wars, according to his discharge papers. Between active duty and the U.S Army National Guard, Holliman said he served 40 years in the military.

Veteran says his prosthetic legs were taken, then returned, but he still can't use them ... and go home

COLLINS — A man walked into a nursing home for military veterans two days before Christmas, picked up Jerry Holliman's legs and left.

Holliman, 69, had hopes of moving back to his home in Hattiesburg and returning to an independent lifestyle with his new prosthetic legs.

Then they were repossessed.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wouldn't pay for his prosthetic legs, Holliman said, and Medicare wanted him on the hook for co-pays. As Holliman tried to navigate what felt like a maze of paperwork, it felt like his country was forgetting him.

"Medicare did not send me to Vietnam," Holliman said. "I was sent there by my country... with the understanding that if something bad happened to me, that it would be covered by the VA."

On Dec. 23, an employee from Hanger came to the Veterans Home to see Holliman. Holliman said the man was adjusting his prosthetic legs, then asked himto sign some paperwork for Medicare.

Holliman said he declined because the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should pay for the legs in full.

"This is their responsibility," Holliman said.

The man responded by taking the legs and leaving.
read it here