18 Veterans Committ Suicide Every Day - Outrageous!

Dan Frith

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

Talk about a country that has failed its Veterans!  In a stunning admission, top officials at the Veterans Health Administration confirmed that the agency’s own statistics show that an average of 126 veterans per week —6,552 veterans per year—commit suicide, according to an internal email distributed to several VA officials.

Brig. Gen. Michael J. Kussman, the undersecretary for health at the VA, sent the email, dated Dec. 15, 2007. Kussman had inquired about the accuracy of a news report published that month claiming the suicide rate among veterans was 18 per day.

Currently, there is a lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco alleging the VA has failed to properly treat veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and veterans who are suicidal. Those allegations were made in a class-action lawsuit filed against the VA by two veterans advocacy groups, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, alleging a systematic breakdown at the VA has led to an epidemic of suicides. 

It is a sad day when a country fails to care for those men and women who risked their lives to protect our country.  However, I am equally proud of our system of jurisprudence which provides a remedy for holding our government accountable....its called our civil justice system. 

Think about that the next time your hear a Fox News story about limiting your access to the civil justice system!