The War Within: Part of the PTSD story

In San Francisco this week the Veterans Administration has been in court getting caught in their web of deceit over the treatment of veterans with PTSD. The attornies working the case "pro bono" have exposed e mail that show the VA administrators knew that the CBS reports that showed 165 veterans a week attempting suicide was accurate, despite their public denials of the rates of auicides and attempted suicides.

This story from CBS Investigates lays out the lies of one Doctor Ira Katz, the VA's head of Mental health.

Doctor Katz has been the administrations spokesperson on how they have mental health under control and that it is "treatable" yada yada yada. His private e mails contradict his public statements, which have led for many veterans advocates and Senators, among them Senator Patty Murray D - WA, a staunch veterans advocate, her own father is a disabled WW2 veteran, left in a wheel chair.

In one email message titled "Not for the CBS News...," the VA’s head of mental health Dr. Ira Katz wrote "Shh!" and then claimed there were 1,000 suicide attempts per month by veterans under the care of the agency. The e-mail was written last February when CBS News was questioning the VA about the number of veterans who have tried to kill themselves.

After a public records request, the VA provided CBS News with data that showed there were a total of 790 attempted suicides by VA patients in the entire year of 2007. This number was nowhere near what Katz was saying privately in his email.

Here is a link to the e mail in question, pictures say a 1000 words, even if they don't contain that many.

In a story by Mike Fitzgerald in the Belleville News Democrat The War Within: Post-traumatic stress disorder today, he tells the story of a soldier who was in Fallujah in 2004 and his life today as he and his family stuggle with his disabilities, and one of the main ones is PTSD.

His quality of living has dropped," Regina said. "He made a comment, and I'm sure this is part of the depression that comes with PTSD, that he doesn't think he'll live a long life. Because once you're injured like this and your body's that worn down, it wears on you."

Sperry said he wouldn't change his war experiences, or forget any memories -- even those that haunt him. "I'd rather be feeling pain every day than feel nothing at all," he said.

It is the deaths of his friends that haunt him most.

In August 2004, Sperry's best friend, Pfc. Fernando Hannon, 19, was fatally wounded when a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint outside Fallujah. He died as Sperry, trained as a medic, worked frantically to stop his bleeding.

"I'd switched posts with him," Sperry said. "I think about that every day. I cheated him of his marriage and his life. ... And I can't get it out of my mind."

There are many people in and out of the VA that are trying to portray PTSD as a "curable" problem. Yes, it is treatable, and the sooner the better, symptoms can be taught to be managed and coped with, but "cured" no, I don't believe it. Most Mental health workers will tell you there is "NO CURE" just coping mechanisms.

Maybe this story will show you what I mean, it is the story of a Marine who was on Iwo Jima 63 years ago, and now in his 80s,

This story is about Walter Berry: Our War: Belleville man was in first assault on Iwo Jima

Berry's platoon of about 40 men was reduced to half by the end of that day.His worst day on Iwo Jima was yet to come.

Walter and Eva Berry live in a trim modular home in Belleville. As he talks about the war, his oxygen machine thrums in the background. He wears his Marine Corps belt buckle.At age 82, his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has worsened. He thinks a combination of having more time on his hands and not having the coping skills of a younger man may have contributed to what the Veterans Administration has ranked as a 70 percent disability.

He can't sleep without sleeping pills. He can't watch war movies. He dove for cover when a car backfired and hates firecrackers. He's had nightmares since the war."When he first got home, he tried to choke me one night," Eva Berry said. "I hollered, 'Walt! Walt!' and he came to."

She wasn't especially scared by the episode.
"I knew what it was. It was from the service."
Berry said his senses have changed as he's gotten older.
"That was 63 years ago. It shouldn't still be in my mind, but it's so embedded, it comes back," he said.

There is a video on the newspaper web site I wish you would all take the 3 minutes to watch, it is moving, the old pics, etc.

Senator Murray quizzing VA Under Secretary Gordon Mansfield