Times In-Depth: Erie veterans struggle with the wounds of war
U.S. Army Sgt. Jeff Kinnear sits in a room with his psychotherapist. He's in a motorized chair atop a platform, and wears a headset and glasses that are connected to a virtual-reality computer simulator.
He struggles to get comfortable.
The session begins.The 29-year-old Erie native, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in February 2011, is inside Madigan Army Medical Center, near Tacoma, Wash.
But his mind is back in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and that sweltering day in the fall of 2009.
Kinnear, a combat engineer, is operating a Husky land-mine detection vehicle. Walking up the road toward him are two men, a woman and a young boy.
In an instant, they are gone, killed by a roadside bomb.
The child's small hand lands near Kinnear.
To cope with his PTSD, Kinnear must be exposed to its origins.
With his psychotherapist at his side, he relives the horrific event. It's like a video game, tailored to his experience in combat. The chair moves and vibrates to resemble a ride over rough terrain.
Kinnear feels it, twice a week for two hours at a time, a re-creation his doctors hope will one day reduce his stress, ease his symptoms and control his triggers.
http://www.goerie.com/article/20120318/NEWS02/303179913/Times-In-Depth%3A-Erie-veterans-struggle-with-the-wounds-of-war
