Petal Power: Recycled flowers bring smiles to veterans' faces in Florida
Connecting Vets
JULIA LEDOUX
AUGUST 21, 2019
Random Acts of Flowers began because of a near-fatal accident suffered by its founder, Larsen Jay, who fell off a ladder two stories tall and broke every bone in his body in 2007. “He got overwhelming support,” said Donoghue. “His whole hospital room was full of flowers.”
We’ve all heard of recycling plastic, glass and paper.
But what about recycling flowers for veterans?
That’s exactly what Random Acts of Flowers does.
The non-profit recycles and repurposes day-old flowers and delivers them to patients at the Bay Pines Veterans Hospital and other hospitals, hospices and nursing facilities throughout the greater Tampa Bay, Fla. area.
The volunteers who deliver the flowers to the VA medical center are all veterans themselves, said Janette Donoghue, executive director of Random Acts of Flowers Tampa Bay.
“It’s near and dear to their hearts,” she said. “That’s something they want to do, it’s a veteran giving to a veteran.”
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update:‘Extremely tough decision' made to suspend search for missing boaters, officials say read it here
Search for missing firefighters will continue Thursday: 'Time has become our enemy'
Missing boater grew up in Cocoa; mom remains optimistic as search continues
Florida Today
Tyler Vazquez
Aug. 20, 2019
Carla McCluney knows what her son has been through and just how capable he is.
Although Brian McCluney has not been seen since Friday, his mother and the rest of his family are as optimistic as ever.
There's no reason yet to give up on the lifetime fisherman and Navy veteran who was born in Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital and grew up in Cocoa, Carla said.
Since the extensive manhunt was undertaken to find Brian, 38, a firefighter in Jacksonville, and his friend Justin Walker over the weekend, tens of thousands of square miles of Atlantic Ocean have been covered by the U.S. Coast Guard and civilian volunteers.
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Firefighter suing city of St. Petersburg after being denied benefits for cancer diagnosis
Aug 16, 2019
Lt. Francis applied to the city for the benefits on July 1. The lawsuit says that despite the fact that Lt. Francis met all the prerequisites for obtaining the benefits, his application was rejected because he was diagnosed before July 1 when the law went into effect.
A local firefighter is suing the city of St. Petersburg after he says he was denied benefits he should have received after his cancer diagnosis.
Back in May, Governor DeSantis signed a bill granting firefighters certain benefits upon receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Lt. Jason Francis has been employed by the city of St. Petersburg's Fire Department for more than 16 years.
"I've always wanted to do it," Francis said.
He said he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January of 2019. He had to undergo surgery to have his thyroid and dozens of lymphnodes removed.
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Former VA Pathologist Charged in Deaths of 3 Patients
The Associated Press
By Andrew DeMillo
21 Aug 2019
VA officials said in January that outside pathologists reviewed nearly 34,000 cases handled by Levy and found more than 3,000 errors or missed diagnoses dating back to 2005.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A pathologist fired from an Arkansas veterans hospital after officials said he had been impaired while on duty was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of three patients who authorities say he misdiagnosed and whose records he later altered to conceal his mistakes.
A grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday charged Dr. Robert Morris Levy in the patients' deaths and on multiple charges of fraud and making false statements for his alleged attempts to conceal his substance abuse and incorrect diagnoses.
In the deaths, Levy is accused of falsifying entries in his patients' records after making incorrect and misleading diagnoses. In one case, a patient died of prostate cancer after Levy determined that his biopsy showed he didn't have cancer, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors say a second patient died of squamous cell carcinoma after Levy misdiagnosed the patient with another form of carcinoma. In a third case, the indictment says, a patient with small cell carcinoma was treated for a type of cancer he didn't have following an incorrect diagnosis by Levy, and died.
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Body of missing Marine veteran found in ditch in New Mexico, suspect in custody
By: The Associated Press
August 20,2019
Authorities say a body found south of Belen, New Mexico, has been identified as a Marine veteran missing since July and a suspect in his murder case is in custody.
Valencia County, New Mexico, Sheriff’s officials says detectives located a body in a ditch Friday night.
On Saturday, the Office of the Medical Investigator positively identified the body as that of 32-year-old Matthew Gurule, who was last seen on July 27 at the Isleta Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sheriff's officials won't say what led them to the body or how Gurule died.
Belen police say 37-year-old Francisco Gomez of Los Lunas, New Mexico, was arrested Aug. 10 for allegedly using Gurule’s credit card.
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They lived
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 20, 2019
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 King James Version (KJV)
Everyday the reports are written. "This one" is doing this stunt to make people aware veterans are committing suicide. "That one" claims the number to be 22, another one says it is 20, and someone else says, "one is too many."
"This one" takes a walk. "That one" runs, another one does "22 push ups" instead of doing the work to lead the way on how they can want to live.
Then, we have charity after charity, holding events like this one.
"The tournament, it's in memory of Patrick Werne who was a local Veteran," Kyle Jean, Section 1776 operations manager said. "He was battling with his PTSD. He lost the battle last year in early July so this fishing tournament is in memory of him and to raise awareness for the 22 Veterans a day that commit suicide." WWMT News
What are they raising awareness of? That veterans are killing themselves? Without mentioning that the number currently used was changed years ago?
They did not seem to even understand how many more are missing from the report, or the fact that all the talk about suicides, did not prevent the suicide of the veteran they are now having events for. This has been going on for over a decade!
Awareness events like that did nothing to come close to what veterans have been doing in VA parking lots.
"Nearly 30 veterans have taken their own lives on VA medical campuses in the last two years, a figure that has prompted lawmakers to request more monitoring of parking lots and public areas for signs of individuals in distress." Military Times
Then there is the fact among the known suicides, older veterans are the majority, as well as the ignored.
"The VA National Suicide Data Report for 2005 to 2016, which came out in September 2018, highlights an alarming rise in suicides among veterans age 18 to 34 — 45 per 100,000 veterans. Younger veterans have the highest rate of suicide among veterans, but those 55 and older still represent the largest number of suicides." NPR
To understand why all this awareness has not worked in the last decade, we have the more current Department of Defense reports on members committing suicide.
The Air Force is reporting a rise from last year's count, which was the highest on record.
"If airman suicides continue at their current pace, this year’s deaths by suicide in the service would far eclipse last year’s. In 2018, 60 active duty airmen, 17 Air National Guard and three Air Force reservists died by suicide for a total of 80 airmen, according to the Defense Suicide Prevention Office." Stars and Stripes
While over 47,000 American's committed suicide, it shows the lack of growth on the prevention side for civilians to stay alive. We also need to consider that 1.3 million attempted suicide. If suicide awareness worked, don't you think the civilian numbers would have gone down?
The simple fact is, the rate of veterans committing suicide, is even higher. Female veterans committing suicide are 250% times higher than civilian women, just as there are more military males than civilians unaware that suicide is not their only way out of the misery they live with.
When there are more first responders committing suicide than ever before, added into all of this, we keep missing the most important factor of all. Every single one of them lived for the sake of others. None of them found a way to live for themselves. They lived, but we let them die.
