Two Bronze Stars later PTSD and Suicide

After returning from his time overseas in Afghanistan, friends say, Brian Norman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. (Handout photo / December 26, 2008)

After war, teacher's life unraveled
Baltimore Sun - United States
1 2 next Those who served with Brian Norman agree that he was an exceptional soldier - capable, meticulous and brave. He had two combat tours, one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq, and was awarded two Bronze Stars.

He was also known as a singular teacher, one who demanded a great deal from students but also inspired and encouraged them. He helped with college applications, went to school football games, and even took students drag racing.

But this fall, his life unraveled.

On Nov. 12, he was arrested for allegedly slapping the buttocks of a 16-year-old girl, a junior in one of his classes at North Harford High School in Pylesville. Norman, a history and social studies teacher, was suspended with pay.
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Divers search for Pfc. Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng

Divers searching for missing Bragg soldierMcALLEN, Texas — Searchers continued combing a South Texas bay Sunday for a soldier who authorities believe drove his car off the end of a pier the day after Christmas.

Pfc. Jamie Wagner Sengvanhpheng, 21, was home on leave from Fort Bragg, N.C. and visiting family in Rockport when he disappeared after hanging out with friends at a bar late Christmas night.

His 2004 Acura was found submerged in Copano Bay Friday, but Sengvanhpheng was not inside.

A body had not been recovered so the search continued, a dispatcher with the Aransas County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.

Older brother James Sengvanhpheng said there were no developments and declined to say more while his brother remained missing.


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American Liver Foundation’s Nurse Martha Shea Shines

This is the type of person working for the VA. Shea is a volunteer with the American Liver Foundation. When I have a complaint about the VA, it's with the people making the rules and running it, but over 26 years, I could count the number of times there has been anything to complain about when it comes to the people working with the veterans at the VA. The problem is, because people at the top forgot why they went to work for the VA, nothing will be fixed until they remember, it was to serve the veterans that gave so much to all of us.

Giving Back
‘You Feel Like You’re Talking to an Angel’
1
By JAN ELLEN SPIEGEL
Published: December 22, 2008

AS a nurse who deals with liver disease — a particularly trying medical field with a steady drumbeat of dispiriting news — Martha Shea does everything but get away from it after hours.

“I’m just passionate about what I do,” said Ms. Shea, 57, on a recent weekend in a moment of rare repose at her home in Wallingford.

Ms. Shea is described as tough but compassionate by patients she has seen over the years at the Veterans Affairs hospital in West Haven. She has worked there since 1979, first running a hepatology research lab and since 1987, as a nurse — now the nurse-manager of the hepatitis C resource center.

After 25 years in the Air Force Reserve, Ms. Shea retired in 2001 and has been a diligent volunteer with the American Liver Foundation’s Connecticut chapter in North Haven ever since.

“She’s sort of a whirling dervish,” said JoAnn Thompson, the chapter’s executive director. As chairwoman of the chapter’s annual Liver Life Walk the last two years, Ms. Shea raised record amounts of money: $110,000 in 2007, then $142,000 in 2008.

But there’s more. “Whatever we need her for, she finds time to come in and help us out,” Ms. Thompson said.

That can mean stuffing envelopes or decorating the office for the holidays, as Ms. Shea recently did. But more often, she uses the medical skills honed on the front lines of liver disease research and care, volunteering at a half-dozen health fairs a year — usually opting to work a whole day rather than a single shift. And she volunteers with the foundation’s treatment choices initiative — an educational program aimed at those at high risk for contracting hepatitis C.

“I just saw the need and how important it was and how it helped the patients,” Ms. Shea said, explaining why she volunteers on top of her regular job, which includes a hepatitis support group at the V.A. hospital that she runs on her own time. “My feeling for my patients — it’s not just sitting there at the V.A. I advocate for them. I’ll go to congresspeople. I’ll help them write letters. I’ll help them find a place at the shelter. It’s not just ‘come into the clinic, get your shot, here’s your pill.’ ”
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Iraq War veteran arrested after two-hour standoff with police

First thought on this is that I bet it turns out he needed help and thought the only way to get it was if he was arrested first.

Iraq War veteran arrested after two-hour standoff with police in Mansfield Township
Iraq War veteran arrested after two-hour standoff with police
Saturday, December 27, 2008
By TOM QUIGLEY
The Express-Times
MANSFIELD TWP. A mentally disturbed Iraq War veteran who dialed 911 Friday morning claiming he'd shot two people kept officers at bay during an ensuing two-hour standoff, police said.

Richard Toth, 30, made the 911 call -- determined to be a fabrication -- at 9:53 a.m. from his second-floor Mansfield Village apartment, township police Detective Sgt. Robert Emery said.

Police responded and evacuated the building and neighboring apartments in the sprawling complex off Route 57 and established a security perimeter.

The Warren County Tactical Response Team also responded and township Patrolman Jeffrey Conklin, who had had past contact with Toth, talked to him via telephone during negotiations that led to his noontime surrender, Emery said.

Toth allegedly threatened to shoot police and take his own life during phone conversations with a 911 operator.

Police said they did not recover any weapons except for a large kitchen knife Toth held when tactical response officers entered Toth's apartment to arrest him.

Toth did not threaten the officers with the knife, police said.

Authorities had no details immediately available on Toth's military service. Efforts failed to reach family for comment.
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PTSD veterans gain strength from eagle's broken wing

Isaiah 40
29He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Vet saved on the wings of an eagle
written by: Joe Fryer, KARE 11 News,

MINNEAPOLIS - To many veterans, the original copy of the Declaration of Independence, on display at the Minnesota History Center over the summer, is more than a piece of paper.

"It's a document that goes right down into the heart," said former Marine Mark Lauer. "It just reminds me of why I served and why I was proud to do it."

To vets like Lauer, it's a symbol of freedom - like an American flag, or a bald eagle.

So when Bob Snitgen actually brought an eagle to the History Center, you can imagine the reaction.

Of course, to Bob, Harriet the eagle is more than a symbol of freedom.

"To me, she's a lifesaver," Snitgen said with a smile.

As a young man in the early 1960s, Snitgen joined the Navy. He spent two years on riverboats in Vietnam.

Those two years haunted him for many decades. Like so many vets, Snitgen suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"I would lay there crying because I couldn't get my husband to even talk to me," said Liz Snitgen, Bob's wife. "He would stay hidden in a room."

It was so bad seven years ago, doctors at the V.A. Medical Center in Minneapolis labeled him "homicidal/suicidal," and locked him up for months.

After Snitgen left the hospital, a friend suggested taking him to the National Eagle Center in Wabasha. click above for more

Homeless man beaten to death "was a veteran"

A homeless man sleeping on a bench, wakes up, looks at another man, "the wrong way" and then is beaten to death. Turns out that man on the bench, the man not worth living after looking at Singleton "the wrong way" was also a man that served his country and was willing to die for the sake of his country.

No Bond For Suspect In Homeless Beating Death
Police Say Murder Weapon Was A Tire Iron
Police: Suspect Beat Homeless Man Over 'The Wrong Way' He Looked At Him
MIAMI (CBS4)

A Miami man, charged with beating a homeless man to death, was denied bond Saturday on first-degree murder charges, one day after the fatal beating.

Sedrek A. Singleton, 29, was charged on Friday with the first-degree murder of Todd Hill after police stopped him in the area with blood stains on his shirt. Singleton allegedly confessed to beating Hill to death because he didn't like the way he 'looked' at him.

According to Miami police, Hill, 41, was sleeping on a park bench behind the River Park Hotel in downtown Miami at SE 88th Avenue and 4th Street Friday morning when he was attacked around 4:00 a.m. Police said that Singleton confessed to the beating, admitting he was angered over "the wrong way" that Todd Hill looked at him.

The police report said the weapon used was an iron bar.

Woodard says Hill was a veteran who had been living on the streets for at least three years.

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Woodard is Hill's friend.

Police: Man shot over noise during movie

Police: Man shot over noise during movie
Assailant allegedly told the family to be quiet, then threw popcorn
updated 9:21 p.m. ET, Sat., Dec. 27, 2008
PHILADELPHIA - A man enraged by a noisy family sitting near him in a movie theater on Christmas night shot the father of the family in the arm, police said.

James Joseph Cialella, 29, of Philadelphia, told the man's family to be quiet, then threw popcorn at the man's son, police said. The victim told police that Cialella was walking toward his family when he stood up and was shot.

Detectives called to the United Artists Riverview Stadium theater in South Philadelphia found Cialella carrying the weapon, a .380-caliber handgun, in his waistband, police said.
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Who turned the VA into Veteran's Adversary?

Was it President Bush, or Nicholson or the congress? Someone turned the VA into Veteran's Adversary instead of being there for them.

VA grapples with veterans' mental traumas
Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA
Audrey Hudson
Sunday, December 28, 2008

Service members returning from Afghanistan and Iraq increasingly are suffering from mental trauma that dampens their homecomings, hobbles their re-entry into civilian life and imperils their continued military service - a situation the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has sought to address with treatment, counseling and even drug experimentation.

But even as the VA has worked to provide quality health care for millions of veterans at its facilities across the country, it has endured a series of failures - from not notifying test subjects about new drug warnings to ignoring safeguards during experiments. Those failures have damaged the reputation of the agency charged with supporting vulnerable veterans.

But it also has compromised the speedy recovery of those vets.

President-elect Barack Obama, who has named retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as incoming VA secretary, will have to deal with those long-standing discrepancies in the agency, as well as seek out new solutions to remedy the mental health problems plaguing an ever-growing population of veterans.

"Wars are supposed to end when the last shots are fired, but some of our new veterans will unfortunately have to cope with internal demons that may last their lifetime," said Joe Davis, spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Chantix

Mr. Obama, Mr. Filner and other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called for an investigation into a smoking cessation study, which Mr. Peake immediately initiated.

The experiment tracked 240 veterans taking the drug Chantix to examine which forms of counseling were more beneficiary - smoking clinics or through a separate counselor. James Elliott, an Army infantryman who was wounded in Iraq, says the drug caused him to experience a mental breakdown and a showdown with police who used a Taser to subdue him in February.

Mr. Elliott said the VA didn't warn him about new FDA concerns that Chantix was linked to psychotic behavior and nearly 40 suicides until nearly a month after his disturbing incident occurred earlier this year.

The internal investigation confirmed that Mr. Elliott was not alone. It took medical professionals involved in the study anywhere from 16 to 134 days to notify participants taking Chantix about the new warnings.

RU-486

In addition, an experiment using 40 Gulf War veterans recruited from the Bronx Veterans Medical Research Foundation is testing the drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486, to treat chronic multisymptom illness. The drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration to induce abortions by blocking progesterone that is needed to sustain pregnancies.

Diagnosis problem

Aimee Fitzgerald took her 74-year-old husband Joe to the VA hospital in the Bronx last year for diagnosis and treatment after he suddenly started losing motor skills. He was immediately admitted to the hospital, underwent some tests and was told that if he enrolled in a clinical study of Alzheimer's study he could be diagnosed quicker. When he declined, Mrs. Fitzgerald says her husband was immediately dismissed from the hospital without a diagnosis or treatment.
Less than a month later, Mr. Fitzgerald died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease.
After a review of the Fitzgerald case this year, the VA denied that the study recruitment efforts had anything to do with Mr. Fitzgerald's dismissal from the VA hospital.
However, Mr. Peake apologized to the family in an Aug. 26 letter to the editor at The Times.

No consent for tests

The VA halted all new experiments involving human subjects at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock this summer after an investigation by its inspector general.

Rampant violations in human experiments were uncovered, including missing consent forms, clandestine HIV testing and failure to report more than 100 deaths of veterans participating in various studies.

Entire consent forms were missing or signatures missing and research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in one study using veterans with dementia. Patients were tested for AIDS without their knowledge or permission.

In a review of several cancer studies involving 1,400 veterans, investigators randomly sampled the files of 105 patients and could only find 20 consent forms.

In West Virginia, several families of Iraq War veterans demanded a congressional investigation after their loved ones died at home in their sleep. All were taking medication for drugs described for post-traumatic stress disorder. click link above for the rest

Story of Eric Hall number five story of Jeffersonville paper

Clark County’s top stories of 2008
Evening News and Tribune - Jeffersonville,IN,USA

5. ERIC HALL GOES MISSING, FOUND DEAD

The plight of Eric Hall, a Marine from Clark County who went missing near a relative’s home in Florida last winter, dealt a sad blow to the community in 2008.

Hall had been injured by a roadside blast while serving in Iraq in 2005. A fellow Marine was killed in the same blast.

Hall, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, moved from Jeffersonville to Florida upon his retirement to stay with relatives and get a fresh start.

However, shortly after he got there he began to experience war flashbacks and hallucinations. And one afternoon, he disappeared into a nearby woods.

For weeks, thousands helped search for the Marine, hoping to find him alive.

The 24-year-old’s body was later found in early March, badly decomposed, inside of a drainage culvert where he’d likely sought shelter.

His family organized a fundraiser in the summer to help raise money to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

— Compiled and written by Staff Writers David A. Mann and Matt Thacker and Editor Shea Van Hoy. Voted on by the staff of The Evening News.

His story came in behind

4. ROAD-RAGE SHOOTING
3. CRAZY WEATHER
2. PRESIDENTIAL RACE COMES TO SOUTHERN INDIANA
1. JEFF/GRC ALL-STARS ADVANCE TO LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

If you want to read more about Eric Hall, just click the search on his name and find them on this blog.

Tragedies don't stop for the holidays

I haven't been posting very much over the last few days. It's not that trauma stops over the holiday's or that I've been too busy outside of the house. It's more that I've entered into yet another burned out stage. I can't come close to remembering how many times this has happened over the years. Covering trauma, suicide, murders, tragedies along with PTSD, is very stressful. This is not including the emails flying back and forth while I try to get people to understand what PTSD is. Not to worry because every time I get burnt out, God has an endless supply of matches. I'll be back up to speed in a few days.

Yesterday I received a phone call telling me my ex-husband passed away on Christmas Eve. We were married less than two years when I was too young and stupid to know any better. He was a part of my life I wanted to forget. It ended very badly. The strange thing is, when I became engaged to Jack, my ex-husband walked over to him, shook his hand and told Jack, "Congratulations. (sarcastically) You're marring my wife." We knew he must have still been following me. But my ex-husband was fully of surprises. I had to get the marriage annulled so that Jack and I could get married in the Greek Church. My ex-husband signed the papers without any trouble at all and apologized for all that went wrong. I totally forgave him but it was still a part of my life that hurts whenever I think about him.

Today I'm wondering how I'm supposed to feel about his passing. It's hard to get it through my head there is no right or wrong in this. I'll admit I did feel a little guilty when I heard the words. It was as if a weight had come off my shoulders. I know the next time I travel back home, I won't have to be looking over my shoulders wondering if he'll pop up. He hadn't done it in years but there was a nagging feeling from the first few years when we ended and he was always somehow right behind me.

It's hard to think he ended up alone. According to the obituary, he did not leave behind a wife or children. I always thought he would have remarried. Now I wonder if he ever forgave himself.

Whenever you meet someone, there is there past you are meeting as well. We all come with a history or our lives. We do things that hurt other people. Our actions today go into their tomorrows just as their actions go into our's. No matter how hard we try to forget, move on, the time we share with someone else is always with us for better or worse. We all keep secrets. There were several reports over the last few days showing that things in our lives do not take a break over the holidays.


A famous man committed suicide but no one knows why John Costelloe committed suicide.

"He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would reach out," Neu said. "There couldn't have been a more supportive and friendly group. If he wanted to reach out to people, we were right in front of him. I wish he did."

TRAGEDY STRIKES 'SOPRANO' HUNK
TV'S 'JOHNNY CAKES' KILLS SELF

By JAMIE SCHRAM, PERRY CHIARAMONTE and DAVID K. L I
The Brooklyn actor who played Johnny Cakes - the gay-fireman lover of a mob capo on "The Sopranos" - killed himself in a holiday tragedy that has stunned family and friends.

The front door to John Costelloe's Sunset Park home was still sealed with police stickers yesterday, more than a week after the rugged 47-year-old actor committed suicide.

Costelloe, a former FDNY firefighter, shot himself in the head in his basement bedroom on Dec. 16, cops and pals said.

"It's beyond me. This is too much for me to handle right now," the actor's dad, Michael Costelloe, 77, said yesterday.

Firefighter and former colleague Matt Dwyer couldn't believe his friend was gone. click the link above for more

A woman killed her 8 year old son and then tried to kill herself.

Police: Florida Woman Murdered 8-Year-Old Son on Christmas
Friday, December 26, 2008


PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Police have charged a 31-year-old Florida woman with murder after she allegedly smothered her 8-year-old son to death on Christmas.

Police said Eryn Allegra, of Port St. Lucie, gave the boy eight Advil pills to put him to sleep, then early Thursday morning suffocated him with a pillow in a hotel room. Allegra then allegedly tried to slit her wrists, but the blade she used was too dull. Police said she dialed 911 and was taken to a local hospital.

Allegra told investigators she had been having financial problems since August 2007.

It was unclear if Allegra had an attorney.

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, dressed up like Santa, had cash to start a new life but decided that he would end the lives of people in his life first. He walked away from another child and his mother to start a new life with the woman he would end up killing along with her family.

Santa shooter carried secret guilt, attorney says
Story Highlights
Bruce Pardo's son from previous relationship was brain damaged, attorney says
Secret of boy's existence was factor in divorce, newspaper reports
Police are looking for car Pardo might have rented
Authorities release information on those unaccounted for after fire
From Stan Wilson
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The man who police say dressed as Santa Claus and killed nine people at a Christmas Eve party lived with guilt from an incident that left his son from a previous relationship a paraplegic, according to an attorney who once represented the woman in that relationship.

Prime suspect Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who police said committed suicide hours after he went on a shooting rampage and started a raging house fire in the Los Angeles suburb of Covina, had a son who sustained severe brain damage several years ago in an apparent swimming pool accident while he was in Pardo's care, according to attorney Jeffrey Alvirez.

Police have said Pardo targeted his rampage at his former wife, Sylvia Ortega Pardo, and her family at the family's Christmas Eve party.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Pardo had kept his son's existence and condition a secret from his wife. When she found out, her anger over the situation and also finding out that Pardo had claimed the child as a tax dependent for several years became a major factor in divorce proceedings, the paper said, quoting an unidentified source close to the investigation.

Can we stop any of these stories from happening? Could anyone have stopped Pardo? Or Allegra? Or Costelloe? Where were the people who may have helped Allegra and her son with financial problems? Maybe they cared the way Costelloe's friends did but they couldn't do anything to help. What we can do is to do whatever is in our own power to help people in need. We can just do the best we can. At least that way when these things happen, we can always know we did the best we could to prevent it. No matter what we do, we also have to understand there will always be that question of what could we have done differently? All too often that question can only be answered by the other people.

My ex wanted what he wanted and didn't want to save our marriage unless it was under his terms. Then he couldn't let it go easily. Too many times we see only what we want and what we don't have instead of what we ourselves could have done differently.