Judy's letter about PJ

 The US Army sent my son to Iraq and brought me someone else home. My son, PJ Banner, came home suffering and broken, living in the darkness of PTSD. Nighttime was the worst for PJ and from day one he would have horrible nightmares, sweats, he would wake up screaming and crying. The nights he didn’t sleep were because he didn’t want to go to bed and sleep; he was afraid to dream. There were nights I would get up hearing him walking round the house. I held him in my arms one night and he cried and he cried. I said PJ what’s wrong. ” I can’t get the kids out of my mind mom.” The kids who he gave candy to and had befriended in Iraq were killed by a suicide bomber and he had to help clean up their body parts. He could not erase those images from his mind. He would scream in his nightmares. He cried uncontrollably at night. I would ask him why he wouldn’t go to bed to get some sleep. He would go days with sporadic sleep. He would tell me he didn’t like the sleeping meds they gave him because he didn’t like how it made him feel the next day. He would wake up feeling groggy, tired and out of it. Yet when he didn’t take the sleeping pills, he would not sleep because he was afraid to close his eyes because the nightmares would torture him. I know when he’d hear a loud noise he would jump or jerk, not in the usual way. He was terrified and easily startled and as time went by it became worse.

I want to talk about all the medications he was on. He had a box that was full of medication that he was prescribed. Stacey now has this. Every time he went to the VA it seemed like they changed his medication. I questioned him all the time about his clinic visits. One time they changed his meds and he was not acting right so I made him call the clinic. He felt like he was zoned out if he took certain kinds of meds. He didn’t want to take them and be zoned out but Dr. Perry would convince him to try it or just switch it up again. She had him on double the normal dose of Celexa, which was at toxic levels in his body. He was on 80 mg of Celexa with Seroquil and 3 other ant-depressants floating around in his system. There was concern that the VA had put him back on Seroquel. He had taken Seroquel before and had gotten extremely erratic in his behavior and was told not to take it again due to the side effects. The ball was dropped, the VA did not ensure that my son was safe, he was not given proper medical care and his doctor gave him a death sentence. His mental health continued to decline. NO ONE did anything to help my sick son.

He always saw the same doctor, Dr. Angela Perry, so there should have been absolutely no excuse for not knowing his previous history. He was taking 21 pills per day from the VA alone!!!! 32 years old. You do the math. She was my son’s drug dealer, the person who is responsible for his death. PJ’s wife, Stacey would call and leave message after message with Dr. Perry’s nurse begging them to stop giving him all the pills they prescribed him, to please help him, she would tell them how sick he was. No one helped; they just continued handing out hundreds of pills a month. They had him on pain pills for no valid reason, just because he asked for them. They had taken the pain pills from him at one point when Stacey made such a fuss and then turned around and gave them to him again within a month. Instead of giving him Vicodin they bumped it up to Oxycodone. He made multiple trips to the ER complaining of asthma but he would tell them his back or head, or some body part was hurting him. He was seeking pain pills. All of his ER visits were sent to the VA notifying them of his office visit. Within six weeks right before he died he had been to the ER three times. He had also visited the VA during that time. He got a bottle of 150 pain pills April 29^th and there was not one pain pill left in the bottle by the time he died on May 6. They gave him all the pain pills he wanted; he thought they would numb his pain.

A few months before he passed away, PJ had been inpatient at the VA in Salisbury for only a few days, but it didn’t help at all. He was on more medication by time he got out. He never had any phone calls or follow-up from the substance abuse counselor, Cindy or Chi-Chi from the VA. Why didn’t he have a case worker? Why would the VA release him when he threatened to kill his boss at Kmart which resulted in his job loss and another weekend stint in Salisbury? Why didn’t they realize that he was sick and needed help? Why release an emotionally unstable man who was suffering so terribly from his PTSD? He kept seeking help and it turned out to be in vain.

It got to a point where he wasn’t taking care of himself at all. He got tired of taking all the pills. He would go from a high energy straight down to low with terrible mood swings. Even PJ said “mom they have me on too many pills.” He admitted he was not in a good place. He admitted he was an addict and he told me “the VA made me an addict and I don’t know how to get out of this.” He went back to the VA every three months for a very long time. I was so worried d about all the medication he was on that I kept up with and divided his medications for him. Every time you turned around he was having his meds changed. How would you know how it was working because he wasn’t on it long enough? His depression worsened, and he was spiraling down even further.

As he progressively got worse, he started to gravitate to people he thought were his friends, but were not a good influence or would hole himself up in the house. There were times when he didn’t take a shower for two weeks because he got to where he just didn’t care anymore. He would stay in his room and just zone out or be on so much medicine he would just pass out from all the chemicals in his body. I had talked to Stacey when PJ would go through this and I would tell her he had no desire to do anything. She would once again call the VA to let them know how he was behaving and would beg them to help him. There were times when I would try to wake him up for work and he wouldn’t even open his eyes. He said he couldn’t. He would snore so loudly that I could hear him clear on the other side of the house with the door shut. I am pretty sure he was at one point diagnosed with sleep apnea. The VA could give him all those pills but couldn’t provide him with a CPAP machine to help him breathe during his sleep. This sure didn’t help his grogginess during the day on top of the medications, the lack of sleep, etc. He was a walking zombie.

He tried desperately to get his life together, to find a job, to function more normally but he just kept getting knocked down. PJ desperately wanted to be the father and husband he had been before. PJ went down to employment security commission several times and they couldn’t find him a job. No one even followed up with him. They didn’t care. He felt like a failure. . I have a letter he wrote saying he was a loser saying he couldn’t get a job, lost his wife and kids, couldn’t pay child support, and couldn’t pay his bills. He felt like a loser…..he was in such a deep dark place and could not find his way out.

PJ had attended school when he returned home but quit due to transportation issues and his PTSD. When he had to do oral presentations he would get so nervous unlike he ever had before he went to Iraq. He would sweat and shake and almost throw up from his anxiety. It all became too much for him. Then he got a call from on e of his teachers…PJ really enjoyed school when he wasn’t standing up I front of everyone and when his meds were working. He was so excited after the call. He told me mom “I am gonna go back to school”. They were waiving whatever money he owed to the school so he could go back. He thought his life would finally get back on track. He only had 2 semesters to go to receive his Criminal Justice degree. This was two months before he died. The army career was his livelihood and as much as the experience in Iraq, them sending him home destroyed his plans, ruined his chance of a long-term career. Many times PJ mentioned to me that the main reason he joined the military is so that if anything were to happen to him that his wife and children would be taken care of. Well, guess what? That didn’t happen. The VA failed him in life and death.

PJ’s mom (Paul Banner, Jr)

Judith T. Jackson

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PJ's Story

I am writing to voice my concerns regarding veterans with PTSD and the lack of mental health care given by the Veterans Administration. I’m asking for services are provided to all veterans suffering with PTSD. Many veterans are overmedicated by the VA medical facilities and not given the proper medical or mental health care they need and require to combat PTSD.

Let me tell you a little bit about my husband, Specialist Paul (PJ) Banner Jr. He proudly served his country in the US Army from 1998 t0 2001 and again in 2004 until 2006. He served with honor and pride. He loved being a military man; he embraced the Army life and committed himself to serving his country. While stationed in Iraq, PJ developed severe asthma which resulted in several severe asthma attacks to the point where he was unable to perform his duties. Due to his diagnosis of asthma and the recurring asthma attacks, PJ was discharged in 2006 and eventually received medical retirement.

After being discharged PJ dealt with anxiety and battled depression because he had lost his livelihood, his life, and his dreams when he was unable to continue his military career. PJ suffered from PTSD which resulted in horrific nightmares that caused him to live in a constant state of anxiety, a battle raging within his soul. He would wake up screaming, crying, disoriented and drenched in sweat. He lived in constant anxiety and turmoil sometimes avoiding certain places. PJ hated the way he felt, but he couldn’t change it so he became very angry with himself.

I cannot imagine what he lived with inside his mind and deep in his heart every single day but it broke my heart to watch him struggle with anguish and torment. There was nothing I could do to help him. Some days I just sat and cried right along with him. He wanted to function as he once had, to live his life fully and be a father and husband, but his mind would not allow him to. PJ battled PTSD on a daily basis. He was unable to function normally; PTSD controlled his life. The man who came home from Iraq was not the husband who I kissed goodbye on that December day as he boarded a bus to head to Iraq.

Shortly after PJ came home, our son Dylan who was 8 at the time was diagnosed with PTSD as well due to living with a father with PTSD. Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it is not only to see your husband struggle and be plagued with PTSD, but your own innocent child as well? Dylan is now 13 and still has episodes where his PTSD is triggered. Our son and daughter both experienced fear, sadness, guilt, helplessness and were traumatized to some extent by living with a dad with PTSD. Their dad tried to get help time and time again, but then he got to such a low point in his life that he just didn’t care anymore. No one from the Veterans Administration, or the Federal government, the VA clinic or Dr. Perry cared that he was a broken man, a shell of the dad, husband, son and brother he had once been. His family stood by feeling helpless as we watched the person we all loved slip further and further away.

In 2006, when he first returned home, Paul (PJ) received mental health treatment from a private psychiatrist, Dr. Nawar Alnaquib. Dr. Alnaquib treated both PJ and our son, Dylan for PTSD until she moved to Chicago in 2007. At that point, PJ received his medical and mental health treatments at the VA Clinic in Winston-Salem, NC from Dr. Angela Perry. PJ saw her every time he went in. He was not seen by numerous doctors so Dr. Perry was aware of what was in his medical chart and his history.

PJ was not treated for his PTSD as far as being given the tools to cope with PTSD or by receiving intensive therapy. He did not have a case manger that followed him or anyone who encouraged and supported him in his fight with PTSD. Instead the Dr. Perry wrote numerous prescriptions. He was prescribed pain pills when there was no diagnosis of injuries sustained or any history of pain, just a history of self medicating after he returned from Iraq. Even with that information and no diagnosis of chronic pain or injury he continued to receive prescriptions for narcotic pain medication. He continued to receive numerous pain pills after being hospitalized for abusing his medication and even when he would visit local Emergency Dept. or Urgent Care facilities. These medical centers would send correspondence to the VA, to his provider, Dr. Perry, and yet PJ still received a monthly prescription of pain pills. Paul (PJ) was on Vicodin, but eventually Dr. Perry gave him a stronger pain pill of Oxy Codone. PJ was given 90 OxyCodone pills each month along with 150 Xanax, sleeping pills and various other medications.

I contacted the VA clinic numerous times with concerns regarding all the medications PJ was on and his declining mental health. I left message after message with the Red Team nurse line (Dr. Perry was on the Red team) I received only one reply. I am fully aware of HIPPA and I was not asking them to divulge any of his information with me, I just wanted them to be aware of how terribly sick my husband was, how far down he had slipped, how I was so scared for him! I desperately wanted to save him. I begged and pleaded for the nurse to ask Dr. Perry not to continue to give Paul narcotic pain pills. I left numerous messages for Cindy, one of the social workers. I talked to the supervisor over the Winston-Salem clinic; I spoke with Chi Chi Rodriguez at the Salisbury VA about my husband. My friend, Susan Long, was present for each of these conversations and states this in her letter to support my claim. Ms. Rodriguez had previously helped me get PJ but I was told I couldn’t make him go into treatment that PJ would have to choose to receive treatment. I am well aware of that and I know PJ made the choice to abuse his medication but couldn’t someone...anyone make the doctor stop writing prescriptions for the pain pills, the Xanax prescribed with Ritalin, and sleeping pills!!?? That is my question. The Veterans Administration was my husband’s drug supplier.

My big, strong, fun loving 31 year old husband who had worked 2 jobs, attended college, loved his family, enjoyed football and loved our children with all of his heart was barely functioning!! I saw the sadness when he would sit in the floor and cry for hours, or he would scream in his sleep from nightmares, or wouldn’t leave the house for days. PJ wouldn’t go out in large crowds, he became easily spooked, and eventually he became somewhat of a recluse. The battle continued to rage within. He was on so much medication that some days he would be spaced out or sleep for hours and hours on end. He was unable to find a job due to his PTSD.

I had PJ check into Salisbury VA rehab 3 times for his PTSD/overmedication only to have the doctors load him up with more medications for a few days and then send him home like a zombie, with even more prescriptions. He threatened to kill his boss and went voluntarily to commit himself and was released 3 days later! No one seemed to care that he was in such a sad state of helplessness, of despair and anxiety. The doctors continued to write out prescriptions, doling out 100’s of pills every month to an emotionally unstable, self medicating veteran who was fighting for his sanity, for his mind, for his life.

Sadly, and as a result of the VA’s negligence, my best friend, my children’s father, my husband of 12 years, my other half, passed away at the age of 32, on May 6, 2009 from an accidental drug overdose. He had toxic levels of Celexa (an anti depressant medication prescribed by the VA) and Methadone with various other medications. PJ was on 80 mg/day of Celexa and the recommended dose is 40mg/day. There is no medical evidence that a dose greater than 40 mg is beneficial to a patient, yet he was prescribed double the recommended dose along with numerous other medications.

My children and I miss PJ terribly. It has left a void in our souls that can never be replaced. Our children are left without their daddy. Our son still suffers with his own PTSD and they both have their own grief and pain to work through. They will NEVER get their daddy back. PJ’s mom lost her baby boy way too soon. His brother lost his best friend. He was loved by so many. If love alone could have saved him, he would still be here.

My husband is finally at peace from the pain that tormented his soul and the PTSD that overtook his mind, but his death could have been prevented and his PTSD could have been treated if only the doctors had helped him instead of hindering him by overmedicating him to the point of being unable to function. PTSD affects an alarming number of veterans and yet very little help is offered. A prescription “band-aid” will not cure PTSD or the veterans who are suffering. I hope the government will realize that soldiers are not receiving proper medical treatment, but are being supplied drugs to zonk them out of their minds. I hope other veterans and their families may be spared from the same fate.

It is also my hope that the VA will review all claims for Dependents Indemnity Compensation on a case by case basis, especially with more PTSD related deaths. PJ was a veteran of the United States of America. He served his country twice and fought for his country, yet I was denied DIC because the cause of death is not service connected. PJ’s death is unrelated to asthma, in which he received compensation for, but in all honesty, the VA could have prevented my husband’s death. The doctors who continued to supply his medications at toxic levels are ultimately responsible for my husband’s death, the reason Dylan and Gracie don’t have their dad here with them, the reason I became a widow at the age of 34.

I believe if PJ had been given the tools to be successful in battling his PTSD and if the numerous warnings and pleas had been heeded, PJ would be alive today. With that being said, I’m not sure how his death could NOT be service connected.

I hope you will help me raise awareness of overmedicating our veterans and help find ways to help those suffering with PTSD; not only the soldiers and veterans, but also their families. I pray Dylan and Grace will find great comfort knowing their dad’s story will help others. I also pray that our children will receive the benefits they are entitled to.

I have applied for benefits and been denied FOUR times, yet the VA has not contacted one of the 18 witnesses, the civilian doctors or counselors who provided evidence, since the original claim three years ago. How can a fair decision be made without reviewing all evidence? How can I be denied benefits for myself and my children if the VA review board has not spoken to one person who could support and validate my claim?

I am asking the VA to review my claim yet again as well as to contact ALL witnesses, all doctors, psychiatrist, and all persons listed in the claim so a fair and accurate, unbiased decision can be made and benefits to be retroacted since original claim 6/2006.

I’m also requesting the VA to reevaluate the process of accessing and of assisting soldiers with PTSD

 PTSD affects an alarming number of veterans and yet very little help is offered. A prescription “band-aid” will not cure PTSD or the veterans who are suffering. I hope to help another veteran and their families be spared from the same fate. I hope the VA will be mandated more and no longer be the drug dealer to the soldiers and Veterans.

Below is a list of medications PJ was on at the time of his death:

         Asmanex 220mcg 

Inhale 2 puffs at bedtime

        Foradil Aerolizer 

Inhale 1 capsule in inhaler PO every day

        Divaloprex (Seroquil) 500 MG 24 hr (ER)

Take 2 tablets PO at bedtime

        Citalopram  Hydrobromide (Celexa) 40 mg

Take 1 tablet by mouth twice a day (80 mg total)

        Oxycodone 5mg 

Take one capsule PO 3 times a day PRN for pain (90 tabs dispensed each month)

        Alprazolam (Xanax) 1 mg

Take 1 tablet PO three times a day and also take 2 tablets at bedtime  (150 tab dispensed) along with sleeping pill

        (PJ was on Lorazepam as well, but I do not have that bottle)

        Zolpidem Tartrate 10mg

Take 1 tab at bedtime PRN for sleep

     Methocarbamol  500 mg

Take 1 tablet every 6 hrs PRN for muscle spasms

        Vardenafil 20 mg

Take ½ tablet PO 1 hr prior to sexual activity

        Prevacid 30 mg

Take 1 capsule two times daily

        Clindamyacin 1% topical solution 

Apply to affected area on face twice a day

Found in his toxicology report:  Citalopram and Methadone at toxic levels, as well as amitriptyline, lorazepam, nortriptyline (metabolite of amitriptyline)

All medications prescribed by Dr. Perry at VA of Winston-Salem Clinic

Sincerely,

Stacey D. Banner

Widow of Specialist Paul F. Banner, Jr.