Don’t be a pussy: Traumatic brain injury in an Iraq veteran

Lance Corporal Michael Stubbs of Medford, Massachusetts, 24, had been wounded in Fallujah and was back at Fort Devens on "medical hold" status – still on active duty, awaiting treatment.

A turret gunner, Michael had survived three blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). One blast on May 25 had given him a concussion. He walked away from it, and tried to shrug it off. For weeks he toughed it out, though his fellow Marines urged him to seek medical treatment. Finally, he went to a doctor, who recommended he be sent home for a medical evaluation. His commanding officer disagreed.

"Don't be a pussy; you’re fine," he said.

But the dizzy spells made it impossible for Michael to keep up during patrols. The Marines in his platoon begged the medical staff to take another look, saying they feared for his health and their safety as a unit. On August 6, he was declared unfit for duty and was sent to the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

His medical records show his diagnosis of a concussion and his injuries to his back and knees. Two days later he was shipped to Fort Devens and told there would be follow-up medical appointments.

But "no one was there to help me," he said. "There were no follow-up appointments. I was told my records were lost."

To this day, he has never been screened for Traumatic Brain Injury, caused when the brain is shaken by a blast wave. But he suffers the symptoms – disorientation, depression and anger – which can take months to surface. He was having nightmares and suffering from sleeplessness – and drinking as a way to self-medicate. But the command saw no physical injury and ordered him to perform work details, including painting the headquarters' hallway.

That's what he was doing on September 4, when he heard the squeaking of a pen on a white board at HQ. He watched as an officer wrote the names of the men in his unit who had just been killed in action: Shoemacher, Valdepenas, Walsh.

Advice: Spread the stories of veterans to help them get the medical care they deserve.

Read another vet’s story, or read more from the source article by Charles Sennott in today’s Boston Globe.

We decided we were not going to stop fighting: A veteran’s suicide

Lance Corporal Jeffrey Lucey served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and returned home a changed person, according to his family. He had nightmares, insomnia, and deep depression, and began drinking heavily.

He told his sister he had picked out a rope to hang himself with. His family persuaded him to seek care through the Veterans Administration, where he admitted himself on May 28, 2004. He was placed in a locked psychiatric ward, but was released three days later. Two days later, he totaled the family’s car in what the family believes was a suicide attempt. A few days after that, his family persuaded him to return to seek treatment. He did so on June 5, but he was denied treatment, with no psychiatrist available, his family said. On June 22, he hanged himself in the basement of his family’s home in Belchertown, Massachusetts.

Now "the Lucey family has been an inspiration, a one-family advocacy group that has tried to bring a lot of visibility to suicide and to mental health issues for veterans," said Paul Riechkhoff, the executive director of Veterans of America. Veterans of America estimates that 117 Iraqi war veterans have killed themselves.

Jeffrey’s family has retained attorney Cristobal Bonifaz to file a lawsuit against the government in federal court in Springfield, Massachusetts. The attorney said the VA’s failure to recognize Jeffrey’s suicidal tendency amounted to negligence and medical malpractice by an overstressed, understaffed system.

Advice: Refer Iraq war veterans to Veterans of America.

You can read more in Charles Sennott’s story in the Boston Globe of July 27.