My cousin Adam joined the US Army as a paratrooper in 1996 in his early 20’s. He quickly excelled in the 82nd Airborne Division setting several records, one of those being completing over 100 military jumps. These jumps are far different than recreational skydiving involving much higher altitude, full gear and equipment and have severe consequence on the body and brain. Realizing early in his enlistment his desire to continue serving the country he joined officer candidate school and rose to the ranks of Lt Col. in his 23 year career. During this time Adam was deployed on 8 combat tours each lasting around a year at a time, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa. Simultaneously, Adam had a growing family at home with 5 children. Despite his many deployments Adam was an avid family man and loves his children fiercely. Very unexpectedly in 2016 his first grandson came into the world. Needing 24/7 special needs care for him Adam stepped up alone and chose to retire to take care of him. He accepted this mission with his whole heart. His children and his grandson keep him going but since retiring almost 8 years ago Adam has struggled with severe ptsd and traumatic brain injuries. His tours and his jumps have led to a life of mental struggles, pain and nightmares. He has tried all avenues of help through the VA and the many prescription drugs and VA therapists leave him barely getting by. He also recently lost his father who was his confidant and support having been through Vietnam.
I was listening to a podcast about a treatment for addiction and ptsd recently and became aware of a highly recommended treatment for soldiers with ptsd that isn’t available in the US. I reached out to Adam immediately and implored him to listen to the compelling podcast. He did that day. I have tried to keep an open line of communication over the years with Adam because I feel deeply about his sacrifice of himself for the protections we can take for granted. He was excited. His exact text to me was “I pray it works!!!”. Through out the coming days/weeks I have kept in closer contact with Adam while researching and planning to set up treatment for him. We intend to make this as easy as possible for Adam and hope to provide this at no cost to him.
This treatment can help many issues but suffering severe PTSD is life debilitating. If you should find it in your heart to help aid us getting Adam this potentially life healing treatment it would mean everything to his family. We intend to share his experience through the process so he can help lead others to healing. We feel this opportunity was a God send and will do whatever we can to get him this help.
