Save Our Soldiers
EMERGENCY services are being stretched to the limit by soldiers and veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The shocking pressure has been revealed by paramedics and police who increasingly have to deal with military personnel driven to the edge of sanity by their harrowing experiences in war zones.
In one county, Wiltshire, where there are eight armed forces bases with 15,000 personnel, the call-out log includes:
A SUICIDAL soldier who had taken a drug overdose in barracks.
A TORMENTED Iraq veteran threatening to shoot his girlfriend and children.
A PTSD VICTIM collapsing in the street with a seizure brought on by overwhelming memories of horror in Afghanistan.
One cop said: “You can’t train somebody to be the ultra- aggressive killing machines that we want them to be and then expect them to be able to shut it off completely when they’re back.”
And an ambulance caller – backing the Sunday People’s campaign for a drastic overhaul of the Ministry of Defence’s treatment of PTSD sufferers – says: “They should be given more support.
Struggle
“We’re getting more of these calls and it’s taking away emergency resources.”
A serving soldier commits suicide every month and there are thought to be over 10,000 veterans with mental illness.
Tomorrow night the Channel 4 series 999 What’s Your Emergency follows Wiltshire police, paramedics and fire service as they struggle to cope with the military personnel who have been pushed to breaking point after returning from war zones.
Afghanistan veteran Sgt Neil Edwards of the Royal Corps Signals suffers from PTSD and he’s shown being rushed to hospital after being found having a fit in the street.
“I remember being on the floor having a seizure,” the 37-year-old recalls.
“My neighbour walked past and asked if I was OK. I remember crying my eyes out. Your whole body seizes up and you start shaking.” Neil was diagnosed with the disorder after a tour of Helmand province in Afghanistan with the 47th regiment Royal Artillery four years ago. The father- of- two, who joined the Army at 16, said: “You hear about PTSD and read about it but I never thought I would have it. It was just this vicious circle o of hell. “M “My kids couldn’t make mu much noise because screams w were just too much for me. I It was too much sensory overload and I j ust couldn’t cope. I was angry a all the time.” In one mission the ve vehicle carrying him and his co comrades hit a bomb in the road. Three died and six were h hurt. Neil’s il’ wife if Becky, 35, said: “When Neil came back from Helmand I knew something wasn’t quite right with him. “He was short-tempered and not the person I knew. I couldn’t say I thought he had PTSD because he’s a man. He needed to realise it for himself. It wasn’t until he went to a Christmas party and a cracker went off and he came home in bits and said ‘I’m not well.’”
Neil added: “I don’t think PTSD is a sign of weakness. It’s just the things I did and saw, my brain goes, ‘I just can’t take any more.’ I don’t need to man up or shake it off, I just have to live with it.”
Neil left the Army last Wednesday and the Edwards family have moved to Devon, where he is waiting for therapy for his PTSD.
He said: “I don’t think I’ll ever be fully healed – I might get to 95 per cent.”
But there are other soldiers without the same support who turn to emergency services when PTSD overwhelms them.
Army v e t e r a n Ror y Fitzpatrick rarely leaves the house other than to buy groceries, and cannot handle the pressures of being in a crowded place. Rory, 49, who was shot in the back and saw comrades killed during his war service, has been reported to Wiltshire Police for making repeated calls for an ambulance.
But the desperate ex- serviceman insisted it was because he is in dire need