Healing Combat Trauma

CNN This Weekend - A Special Report on the Broken-Down VA System

(Yikes.  The bad press continues...)  On CNN this weekend, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, takes a look at the VA and how it's treating returning veterans.  Here's what CNN has to say about the series, from its site:

Broken Government

Meet Iraq war heroes who barely escaped death, sacrificed limbs and then came home to a broken bureaucracy that let them down. Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel, Army Maj. Tammy Duckworth, and Army Sgt. Garrett Anderson share the intimate details of their survival on the battlefield, and the war they would end up fighting on their soil. CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates the shocking reality of what happens to so many wounded warriors once they return from the battlefront in Waging War on the V.A.

Watch this Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET.

•A family of warriors
•Iraq War Vet Let Down by V.A.
•The price of war

Empathy versus Sympathy

It was interesting to read in Kimberly Dozier's story on NPR recently, one comment that she made about empathy versus sympathy.  We've talked about that before on this blog, somewhat obliquely; and it was nice to hear the same sentiment expressed by another.  Dozier, you'll remember, is the CBS news reporter who was seriously injured in a car bomb explosion in Iraq.  She recently published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, simply entitled, "War's Wounds Need More Study," a topic she could speak about from intimate experience.  In the question and answer session that followed, here's one interesting snippet of what she had to say::

On a personal note, I hate sympathy, thanks, and so do the injured troops I've met. Makes my stomach turn. Empathy is welcome, however, and appropriate for anyone injured in that conflict, whatever any of us think about ...it....

(Click here to read the NPR story; or listen to the audio file.)

What is it about those two words that makes them so different?  Language arts teachers would probably say it has something to do with the difference between connotative and denotative meaning.  What the words literally mean is one thing -- denotative -- but it's the accretion of context that's changed them in our ears, so that when we hear them, we hear something different - perhaps the difference between compassion and pity?  "Sympathy" is basically, "I feel sorry for you," emphasis on "I" (the 'me').  Empathy has come to mean, "I'm sorry with you," emphasis on "you" (the 'other').  There really is a difference.  Some say, as Dozier's comment underscores, that it's a difference you can actually feel.

VA Budget is Overdue - But Veterans Healthcare Can't Wait

Watch the ad, sign the petition...to make sure veterans get the healthcare and services they need, including treatment for combat trauma and PTSD.  More background can be found at IAVA.org and IAVAAction.org.

PBS Show on Veterans & PTSD Tonight

PBS will air a show called "Veterans of PTSD" tonight, on "Now," with David Brancaccio -- familiar to many listeners of "Marketplace."  Streaming video will be available after the show airs.  Click for a link here.  You can also learn more about Matthew Zacchea, featured in the program, in this earlier article on PTSD and veterans, from US News & World Report last year.

About the show:

Bouts of fierce anger, depression, and anxiety that previous generations of soldiers described as "shell shock" or "combat/battle fatigue" now earn a clinical diagnosis: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. But the relatively new medical label doesn't guarantee soldiers will get the care they need. NOW looks at how America's newest crop of returning soldiers is coping with the emotional scars of war, and some new and innovative treatments for them.

In the show, we spent time with Iraq War veteran Michael Zacchea, a Marine lieutenant colonel who trained Iraqi troops and led them in the battle of Fallujah. Haunted by the violence he saw there, Zacchea and other soldiers diagnosed with PTSD now face what could be a lifelong struggle to leave the horrors of war behind and reclaim their once-peaceful lives.

In a side note: do you notice how much of the decent reportage on PTSD and combat trauma -- indeed, on veterans issues in general -- is coming from listener-supported public radio and television?  While bloggers and others complain about what the mainstream media does and doesn't cover, I hope someone is paying attention to this trend -- the good information is still out there, it's just a question of where you look.

Speaking of which, she said somewhat peevishly, we've been blogging about this topic for almost two years now -- well ahead of the current "surge" in popular interest.  That said, there can't be enough interest given to this topic, to help heal those who are struggling with it/suffering from it.  Though frankly this topic should have been on our minds since Vietnam -- or maybe the Civil War, where it also was an issue.  And undoubtedly since combat began.

Watch HBO's "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq"

BTW, now that HBO has shown its excellent special, "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," you can watch the entire film on its website.  Here's the link. 

Well-deserved props to HBO, James Gandolfini, and everyone involved for getting this vital story out there.  Realistically, the film shows nine or ten people's valuable stories -- but nine or ten out of the more than 27,000 military who have been injured in Afghanistan and Iraq, so far.  That's almost 30,000 people coming home and needing to cope with the massive adjustments to their lives, families, living accommodations, pride, and dreams for the future.  And it's just the beginning of the adjustments -- there's a long road ahead.  Let's hope we still are giving this topic the compassionate, effective treatment it deserves in another few years -- and from here on out as well.  The vets, and their families, deserve it.

"Alive Day Memories" on DVD in October

"Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" -- the sure-to-be-spectacular HBO documentary, scheduled to show this Sunday evening at 10:30 p.m. -- is also scheduled to be released on DVD on October 23, 2007, according to Netflix.  Click this link to learn more about the documentary, and to read the stories of some of the individuals interviewed by James Gandolfini for the film.  Watch the entire ALIVE DAY MEMORIES special on HBO.com beginning Sunday, September 9 at 11:30pm, immediately following the premiere.  Read the interview with executive producer James Gandolfini here.

"Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" on HBO

HBO will air a documentary called "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" next Sunday, at 10:30 p.m.  Check their schedule for more details.  This was the description on HBO's website:

A new generation of veterans is returning from Iraq. For these survivors, two days will forever memorialize their lives: their birthday and their Alive Day--the day they narrowly escaped death. This HBO Documentary Films production presents the first-person stories of ten Alive Day heroes as told to Emmy®-winning actor James Gandolfini. From a conflict that has left more than 25,000 Americans wounded, the film explores the physical and emotional cost of war through the simple, heartbreaking words of ten young soldiers who survived near-fatal wounds while serving in Iraq. The stories are augmented by harrowing footage from the war-torn streets of Iraq.

Today's San Jose Mercury-News (San Jose, CA) has an article about one of the soldiers profiled in the documentary, and his struggles after injury (though not particularly PTSD/combat trauma).