At Memorial Day: Another Iraq Vet, With PTSD, Suicide

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Greg Mitchell
At Memorial Day: Another Iraq Vet, With PTSD, Suicide
Posted May 25, 2008 | 09:01 AM (EST)



On Memorial Day weekend, yet another American family is mourning the death of son who survived the war in Iraq -- only to fall victim at home from post traumatic shock disorder.

The family lives in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the Marine was Chad Oligschlaeger, age 21, who committed suicide this week at the Twenty Nine Palms base in California.

While the cause of his death is still being investigated, family members say he was taking eight different types of medications to deal with post traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq.

I've been chronicling these stories for nearly five years, and the surge in such reports in recent weeks is truly troubling.

Byron Smith, Oligschlaeger's uncle, told a local TV outlet, "the first tour he came back and he asked for help, and they sent him back over there. I guess that was their idea of help. He did what a marine does he went over there."

His father, Eric, said, "The second tour ... I don't think he was ready to go back. I think he was fighting it. I think he was afraid to go back."

"We sent these kids over there, we're putting them through things that we'll never see in our lifetimes. Things we see in the movies that are not real, it's real to them," said Christine Judan, a family friend of the Oligschlaegers.

Also reported yesterday: a West Virginia paper has found four local cases of Iraq vets who died in their sleep after taking a combination of drugs prescribed for PTSD. More on this soon.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/at-memorial-day-another-i_b_103454.html

[Breeze54]

1. Damn....

and they had him on EIGHT medications?! :grr:

:banghead: :cry:

K&R

[lonestarnot]

5. For shit sakes! 8 drugs?

Those rat bastards!

[Breeze54]

6. Yeah, they are! A lot of those drugs are known to cause suicide, not prevent it! n/t

[lonestarnot]

7. Are they so drugged up they can't think to know 8 is too many?

[Breeze54]

8. Are they doctors? Have you suffered from PTSD?

How many combat soldiers do you know that could diagnose and prescribe
psychiatric drugs for themselves after having just served in a combat zone?

Are you dealing with a full deck today? :crazy:

[panader0]

2. Jesus, that's so sad

I read somewhere that the number of suicides is approaching the death toll from combat. Is this true?
Edit to say I found this related article:http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml

[Haole Girl]

3. Throwing drugs at them, instead of getting the help they need...

is despicable. More blood on the hands of this administration. To me, these soldiers died fighting battle... just as any others.

It's very sad... and senseless.

[ThatsMyBarack]

4. BUCK FUSH!

:mad: