Brandon Ketchum, a combat Veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, committed suicide Friday after the VA turned down his request for mental health treatment. This is a letter he wrote about his experience and struggles to a healing program for veterans that he was trying to get into.
“My name is Brandon Ketchum and am a 33 y/o veteran. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin and joined the military when I was 21 y/o. I served in the Marine Corps from 2004-2008 as a combat engineer, serving two tours in Iraq, locating and clearing road side bombs. I survived 5 “hard hits” or explosions on the vehicles we used to mitigate explosive obstacles. Unfortunately, not all of my brothers were as lucky as I was.
In July 2008 I joined the army as a combat engineer while I attempted to go to college. I dropped out in 2010 to go to Afghanistan with the Iowa National Guard. I again served on a counter Improvised Explosive Device team. About 9 months into my 3rd tour I was injured and sent to Germany, then onto the states where I had to have a couple surgeries, acquiring 15 screws/rods/plates in my back and left leg. In July 2013 I was medically retired as I had been found mentally and physically unfit for duty.
Since exiting the military I have faced many struggles with my mental health and also substance abuse. I was addicted to a high dose of narcotic pain meds, began abusing them and eventually started using heroin. In February 2015 I overdosed and nearly died but was saved by paramedics and coincidentally a police officer who I had once served in the military with.
I have been involved with the substance use disorder program at the VA since 2014 and will graduate the final portion of the outpatient program this Thursday, the 24th of March, 2016. Now that I have more control of myself and my life I have begun the daunting task of starting to piece my life back together after the traumas of three hard fought combat tours had taken a costly toll on nearly every aspect of my life.
The physical and mental symptoms of severe PTSD, depression, anxiety, and the inability to adapt back to the real world has been a tremendous obstacle for me, particularly going through nearly 25-30 different types of meds yet finding no solid gains or improvements. I am a firm believer in medical marijuana but unfortunately it is not yet legalized where I live.
I have watched several documentaries about ayahuasca and considered it in the past for my substance use disorder but opted instead for a residential VA facility. I have found purpose in life again as an aspiring wood worker and am trying to start a small business, but for now work out of my woodshop in my backyard. Although I find a great deal of therapeutic value in woodworking, every day I am haunted by my past; I struggle to find meaning in the wars I waged against people I felt we didn’t protect or help.
Asking for help has only clouded my life with such a stigma that I have carried the ‘crazy’ or ‘broken’ labels, forcing me to have to fight for custody of my little girl that I love more than the world. I’m nearing some possible successes in some aspects of my life, directly as a result of my unwillingness to be discarded and dismissed by the country I swore to give my life for. But at the end of the day, I feel that I am also at war with myself and my ‘demons.'”
He sent that to Ian Benouis, one of the administrators of a plant medicine healing program for veterans that took place in Peru, but was unable to go because of passport issues. After his plan to try more natural healing remedies didn’t work out, Brandon sought help from the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs. Here’s how that went:
Brandon took his life just hours after making that Facebook post. “He had relapsed and was abusing drugs and he just was in a bad place,” said Kristine Nichols, his girlfriend of three years. Brandon was from the Wisconsin Dells area, and was living in Daveport, Iowa at the time of his death.
A local news station in Wisconsin reported that, “Brandon drove to the Iowa City VA Medical Center where he had seen the same psychiatrist for over a year, according to Nichols. He asked to be admitted to the psychiatric ward, due to what he called ‘serious mental issues.’ ‘It wasn’t like a new person. He (the psychiatrist) knows Brandon’s history, he knew he was flagged for suicide with the VA,’ said Nichols. ‘At least two occasions in the past three years he’s been flagged for suicide.'”
Alex Skriver, a close friend of mine who is Kristine’s sister, knew Brandon pretty well. I met him about 2 or 3 times, such a nice guy. As he mentioned above, Brandon had a 5 year old daughter that he loved. I saw some of the woodworking he did. He really had a knack for it, very talented.
Over the past few years I can remember reading disturbing reports about the inefficiencies of the VA, with veterans dying on waiting lists. I was angry, but never fully grasped the haunting reality of it until Brandon’s death.
Back in February CBS News reported that, “A suicide hotline operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs allowed crisis calls to go into voicemail, and callers did not always receive immediate assistance, according to a report by the agency’s internal watchdog.”
A recent VA study showed that 7403 American Military Veterans committed suicide in 2014, at an average of 20 per day. Shockingly that’s more than the number of American Soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001-2016, which is 6884.
Many are blaming President Obama for the deficiencies in Veterans’ medical care, which is not unreasonable. The VA has gotten worse under his Administration, but the root of the problem is that the private sector always does a better job than government. Let’s not pretend the VA was good under Presidents Bush or Clinton, it wasn’t.
About 5 years ago Congressman Paul Ryan put forth a decent proposal for Medicare reform (although he has done nothing meaningful to put it into action). Under that plan, “enrollees in the new regime would use the government’s contribution to shop from a broad array of private insurance plans offered by a Medicare exchange,” Fortune Magazine wrote back in 2011. I believe that same concept of a voucher system should be applied to health care for our veterans. Our vets deserve options. They should have private doctors and insurance companies competing for their business, instead of being put on hold or denied care by a failing federal agency that has no real incentive for improvement.
Sadly Brandon was right, they gave up on him. He had the courage to fight wars in the most dangerous and terrifying places on earth, voluntarily. Yet when he requested “send me to a mental health facility or give me a passport so I can help myself”, in the aftermath of the hell he suffered through battling terrorism, it was too much to ask. He took his own life when the VA decided it wasn’t worth saving.
Rest in peace Brandon Ketchum, you will be missed and your heroic sacrifices will not be forgotten.
*Update: Chris Kemp, a Marine who served alongside Brandon in Iraq, said he plans to open a non-profit retreat on a 45 acre plot near his home in Texas for veterans struggling with PTSD and their families. “I want to get families and veterans together in nature, like camping outside where they can get together and talk,” Kemp says. He plans to call it “Ketchum’s House” in honor of Brandon.
While it is crucial that we lobby Washington for change in the VA, that’s not going to happen overnight. It’s just as important that we take whatever steps possible, big or small, in our local communities to make a difference.
— American Exceptionalism
Check us out on Facebook
Sad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jason – thank you for keeping a light on this subject and I am so sorry to hear about another one of our veterans being completely ignored by our system. It has always deeply saddened me, how our vets have been treated. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. These men and women who have fought so bravely and have been asked to do things that we can not imagine, deserve the best care that they can get. It is truly unfortunate that they don’t get it. However, the V.A. (like so many other Government programs) is broken and there is no will in Washington to fix it. I believe that the V.A. needs to be dismantled and that the programs need to be put in the private sector, like you suggest. This is one of the many reasons we have to fight to restore our founding fathers’ vision, of limited Government. Keep up the fight Jason.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure, and thank you. I completely agree
LikeLiked by 1 person
The VA simply does. Not care… I am a vet and I had a VA doctor tell me ,,”” I don’t care,, I don’t care what you do “
LikeLike
I feel for this gentleman and other vets like him. Unfortunately I doubt that a short stay on 9W would have prevented his ultimate suicide. A few days on a psych ward can prevent an immediate suicide, but it doesn’t fix the long-term problem. There’s evidence that PTSD is due to a brain injury. If that’s true, all the talk and medication in the world can’t fix that. Even if that’s only part of the story, the entire psychiatric medical system is broken — for vets and everyone else. I wouldn’t expect the government to do it better than the private sector, and the private sector is failing.
LikeLike
I agree that there is a lot of problems with the talk it out system. And the problem with drugs is it is trial by error. Personally I get both, drugs and counciling. With the drugs, trying to trial and error to find what is missing in your brain is both haphazard and a waste of time and money. The VA doesn’t do the appropriate tests to find what is needed. It’s not part of their business model.
What we need isn’t federal or corporate models. It needs to be veterans helping veterans. I personally believe that the most good comes from talking to another veteran, trained in how to deal with PTSD. I am working on my own non profit style veterans aid right now, and I think if we can approach this as a community of brothers and sisters we will find a better conclusion than letting suits in Washington or suits in a business office telling us how we are to get fixed. Neither of them have us in their hearts, votes and money is all that matter to them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like you’re doing some awesome work. Thank you for your service Joe
LikeLike
You and I both do not know the answer that question, but is not unreasonable to think that way. My family just wants to know what the doctor’s reasons were for his denial. It’s so more complex than anyone can imagine, and that’s what makes it so difficult to find an approach that works. No two people are the same, so trying the same treatments/approach will never yield the same results for everyone. At least the conversation is still going, and with that, may this happen at a lesser rate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I urge the members of this veterans family to demand the va’s office of Inspector General to conduct an investigation regarding his death. I would also recommend that his family check to see if this veteran at any time call the national Veterans Crisis Line and if so check to see that his calls were properly handled. I would also urge them to contact USA Today reporter Gregg zoroya or military Times Reporter Patricia Kime to publicize the problems that this veteran encountered at the VA. Just to let you know I am an employee and veteran at the Veterans Crisis Line.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great insight. I know that despite problems, there are a lot of good people like you working with the VA. Thank you
LikeLike
Thank you for your comment… a third of the employees at the VA are veterans… We do good things at the VA but we have our problems… at the crisis line we don’t have the luxury of making mistakes we have to be right 100% of the time
LikeLiked by 1 person
To my knowledge, he did reach out to the crisis line, multiple times during his last week. We already have multiple local reporters demanding answers from the VA right now, and more importantly, the specific doctor Brandon had been seen by less than 24 hours before his suicide. Thank you for you insight and advice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And I’ll try to get in contact with those reporters, very helpful information
LikeLike
I am a vet and while trying to get help with a chronic problem, was asked by a VA Dr.: What do you want me to do about it?”
LikeLike
This is a horrifying, gut-wrenching, but not unexpected story. I was a combat engineer (Army). I’m an EMT in the civilian world now. I’ve responded to more than a few emergency patients who turned out to be veterans with PTSD.
Still, don’t bring the unnecessary partisan politics into this. The jab at government funded medicine and the praise for privatized medicine was a false dichotomy. When you under-fund the VA system, you can’t pay for the best doctors and nurses. You’ll be understaffed, too. As a result, you end up scraping the bottom of the barrel for providers, and the ones you get are overworked. We went to war, and created a whole new generation of injured and traumatized veterans… and then our congress refused to fund their care. Plenty of money for new bombers and jets, no money for body armor and therapists. Yeah, there’s a problem with the VA… but I don’t think the root of the problem is what you think it is.
LikeLike
Well I appreciate your service in the military and as a first responder, sounds like you’ve saved a lot of lives and that’s awesome.
I disagree. Six months ago Congress approved billions more in funding for the VA, and it doesn’t seem to have changed much. I don’t think the federal government throwing more money at this problem is the right solution. I don’t feel that I was overly partisan about this (I pointed out the VA wasn’t much better under Bush). There are political issues that need addressed here, I’m not going to tiptoe around that
LikeLike
The biggest problem at the VA is with the senior executive staff… we need more veterans in those positions.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
LikeLiked by 1 person