By Matthew D. LaPlante
One irony: Improvements in the way Murchie’s team works to prevent suicide have often come as a result of evaluating where they might have failed veterans like Jensen, who shot himself in the garage of a friend’s home on July 31.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated Aug 6, 2010 10:49PM
The demons would always be there. Just over his shoulder, just within earshot, just close enough to remind him that his life would never be what it was.
They would keep him from sleeping. They would befuddle him in the midst of simple tasks. And, on occasion, they would entreat him to end it all.
But Kortney Jensen was a fighter. He had endured two tours of duty in Iraq, survived more than 75 roadside bomb detonations and was twice awarded the Purple Heart.
And in this new fight, he was well armed. He had the unconditional support of his family. He was plugged into mental health treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salt Lake City. And he was looking forward to the future: a friend’s wedding, a vacation with his mother and the birth of his second daughter.
With all of that to live for and more, the 27-year-old Army veteran had made it through some very dark days. He’d beaten back the demons.
But he could not destroy them.
But the count is incomplete. The Department of Veterans Affairs believes that more than 6,000 veterans — including many who have served in the nation’s ongoing conflicts — will commit suicide this year. VA officials say many of these deaths are as much a consequence of combat as those resulting immediately from bombs or bullets.
In the long run, the National Institute of Mental Health has estimated, suicide will eclipse roadside bombings as the leading cause of death among those who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those were the same questions Murchie asked following the 2007 suicide of Iraq war veteran Jason Ermer.
Ermer’s mother said the Army abandoned her son, forcing him out of the service after he returned from combat with symptoms of post-traumatic stress. She believes that the care he received from the VA was inconsistent at best — and dehumanizing at worst.read the rest here
I was a High School friend of Kort's and I was shocked and saddened to hear about his death. I am a military wife and know first hand the affects of war.
ReplyDeleteDeb and Seth,
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry about your loss. These deaths should not be happening. I've been tracking them since 2007 on this blog and since 2005 on my older one. I was watching the numbers go up and up and with each one my heart broke.
My husband is a Vietnam vet and too many of them committed suicide but no one was talking about their deaths as a price of war. Back then no one wanted to talk about it, families wanted to hide their pain, so everyone was silent. Because of the silence, there was no media attention leaving the general public oblivious to all of it. They would read about a young veteran's sudden death in the obituary section of their local newspaper and never know what caused it.
We've come so far on getting rid of the stigma of PTSD because people decided something had to be done and they began to talk about it. We have so much more work to do and I pray to God they finally see what they are doing wrong so these deaths stop happening.
Families don't know what they can do to help them heal.
If you want to email me in private, namguardianangel@aol.com and we can "talk" some more.