Penny Flores and Richard Flores Video (Text Version)
Penny: I have a son who is a veteran from the Iraq War.
Richard: I served in the U.S. Army for 5 years and 9 months. I served in the 3rd Infantry Battalion and I did two combat tours in Iraq along with multiple other tours.
Penny: He was diagnosed with PTSD from the first time he came back. Even though he was having outpatient treatment and no medication, he was redeployed.
Richard: The soldier will do anything he can to stay with his Unit, no matter what. If he has to lie on a piece of paper and say he's doing all right even though inside he's hurting real bad, he's going to do it because he'd rather die next to his friend than not be there and his friend die.
Penny: His vehicle went over an IED and he suffered a concussion and a TBI. I received a call from him that he had a TBI and that was pretty difficult. You know but he said you know-he said you have to be strong. I'm alive and I'm calling you so you have to be strong. And I said I am; I am strong. I am strong.
So then he came back; he came back. He-in my opinion you know-he looked like a ghost. He was very ashen and white and he was so thin. You can-you can hug him and feel all his bones.
Richard: Soldiers, we don't like taking medications. We don't like ongoing treatments. You know we pride ourselves in being mentally tough and physically fit. Once we submit to having post traumatic stress disorder, it tears your heart apart because you realize that you're not as tough as you're trained and you're supposed to think you are.
You have soldiers that count on you to be mentally tough and physically fit, and when they see that you're not, it puts a huge weight on your shoulders.
Penny: Definitely the soldiers are the ones suffering because they're in the war theater. But the families may also suffer from secondary post traumatic stress disorder. And so they have to be finding a treatment modality not only for the soldiers but for the families.
Richard: I'm a consumer reviewer for the post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. I initially got involved with CDMRP about 2 years ago through the UT Health Science Center through Colonel [Reinach], who sponsored me.
Penny: She knew about my son's diagnosis and problems and she was very helpful to me. And she was the one who nominated me for the CDMRP.
Richard: I'm a current sufferer of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury so I bring the actual patient to the table. I find working with the scientists an extreme honor. I never thought I'd be sitting beside such intelligent people that are all coming together for a common goal. I've always left with a great insight, bigger knowledge of what-of my condition and a couple friends along the way.
Penny: I've been a nurse for a long time, 20-plus years. So when I got the proposals, I was familiar with the language and what they were doing-no expert or anything like that but at least I understood what the protocols were and the treatment protocols.
Richard: A little bit intimidating; you're a civilian with very limited education sitting around a huge U-shaped table with people that have multiple PhDs, some of them, and they're experts in-on what they do. But I do have the knowledge of being the person that is affected by post traumatic stress disorder and being a soldier, and you start to realize that these doctors, they take your opinions very, very seriously. They take them to heart, and I've actually been able to influence a few proposals in different ways.
Penny: I think PTSD and TBI is going to be very big in the years to come. It's going to be big, big everywhere and I think if we can get it ahead where we don't have so many vets that have secondary problems like alcoholism and drug abuse, all those other co-morbidities, if we can find treatment modalities now as soon as they come back-when they come back-not 10 years later or 20 years later when many of other of these co-morbidities can be associated with PTSD, I think we will be ahead of the game.
Richard: I lost a very, very dear friend to post traumatic stress disorder. He ended up taking his own life. And I initially started doing the peer review process in his memory and I still do, but it has also been a great blessing upon my life so that I can go and I can talk to other veterans and tell them even though we don't see a great improvement of the VA right now in different cures and treatments I can tell them 100% there are very smart people working very hard and very long hours working to find treatments you know; and it's not an overnight process unfortunately, but it gives people a great outlook for the future.
Penny: I think the CDMRP is doing a very good job to try to bring in the best of the best on the table. And I think we owe it to our soldiers and to our families to do the best we can-that we don't forget that they fought for a cause and that they need help and we need to provide that help.