Iraq veteran's family blames VA for son's overdose death - Couldn't deal with killing women and kids

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5419333

LOS ANGELES- The parents of an Iraq war veteran blames the Veterans Administration for the drug abuse death of their son, saying doctors at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center should have watched him more closely.

Marine Corps veteran Justin Bailey, who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and a groin injury, checked himself into the VA hospital just after Thanksgiving because of his addiction to prescription and street drugs.

The 27-year-old Bailey got prescriptions filled on Jan. 25 for five medications, including methadone, according to medical records. He was found dead of a drug overdose the next day in his room at the hospital's rehabilitation center.

"My son had made a decision to get help, and they didn't help him. They gave him the bullet," his father Tony Bailey, 47, of Las Vegas said. snip

"He came back saying, 'Mom, I shot women and children. I can't deal with this,'" said Bailey's mother Danielle Floyd, 53, of Henderson, Nev.

[fed-up]

1. kicking/rec w/sadness n/t

[Canuckistanian]

2. How many of these time bombs are out there?

How many more Timothy McVeighs are there out there or soon to be there?

I realize that all of these vets coming back aren't going to harm anybody but themselves.

But there are a small percentage who will take it out on others. Wives. Children. Total strangers.

Unless the problem of returning troops with mental problems are dealt with, this kind of story will be repeated.

Obviously, the Bush administration has learned nothing from Vietnam.

And how could they, having never served?