Pa. widow sues US over Iraq vet-husband's suicide

[Barrett808]

Source: Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - The widow of a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran from Pennsylvania is suing the U.S. government over her husband's suicide.

Tiera Woodward blames the Veterans Administration for failing to provide her husband, Donald, with adequate mental-health care, despite earlier two suicide attempts. He killed himself in March 2006 after seeking help for depression at the VA Medical Center in Lebanon, a town about 25 miles east of Harrisburg.

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday, says that Woodward served in combat in Iraq from March to August of 2003.

A VA spokeswoman in Washington did not return a message Tuesday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_us/iraq_vet_suicide_lawsuit

[Waiting For Everyman]

1. After all the VA should've learned about PTSD from VN vets,

this is inexcusable. Yet I'm not surprised b/c as the widow of a 100% disabled PTSD vet, I KNOW for myself, that the VA has developed no effective treatment for this - beyond that, they never even tried. When they first set up their first clinics for this, I asked the heads of the program what their treatment consisted of. They had no answer. They have a "mill" which does nothing. That's it.

What worked for my husband was him and me, talking through his memories, flashbacks, and nightmares for thousands and thousands of hours. It's never cured, it never gets better, the best that can be done is for each vet to find a way to live with it.

Second big point which we made over and over, and were always ignored... first solve the life-problems. Without that, nothing can work. When a marriage or family is falling apart, when there are income problems, legal problems, no treatment is going to be effective. The VA would have group therapy for these guys, and ask them insultingly irrelevant questions while refusing to deal with anything they were concerned about, which did nothing but set off their anger triggers.

Also there is no help or coordination or programs for the spouses. The vast majority of these families break up b/c these vets are nearly impossible to live with. That is why so many are homeless. Large numbers of others are wrongfully imprisoned for substance abuse and aggression problems, which are symptomatic of PTSD, but largely unrecognized by the courts. These people should be referred to VA hospitals but instead, are usually jailed. That of course causes further life-coping problems.

It's doesn't have to be this way, it's how the VA chooses to be. A lot of money is spent getting very little done. Mostly b/c the VA insists that it has all the answers, but actually has never paid attention or considered how to solve the vets' problems. The vets, as individuals left on their own to handle it, aren't up to coping with it and neither are the spouses.

[Desperadoe]

2. Family sues over soldier's suicide

Donald Woodward's tormented life ended on March 3, 2006.

An Iraqi war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Woodward's body was found at one of his favorite hiking spots along the Enola Low-Grade Line.

The anguished young man had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 23.

While Woodward's pain is over, his family's continues, and on Monday, his widow, Tiera Woodward, filed a $2 million wrongful death suit against the United States government.

Her attorneys filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Tiera Woodward and the entire Woodward family blame Donald's death on the Lebanon Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lebanon, where the young man had turned for help.<snip>

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/228386

A much more in-depth article from the local paper.