After surviving two successful tours in Iraq with the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division, Isaac Sims, 23, was fatally shot. He was not killed overseas by enemy insurgents, but rather by a SWAT team in his parents’ garage in Kansas City, Missouri. The incident occurred?on Sunday when police officers responded to a call claiming that a weapon was being fired at?Sims’s parents’ residence. A member of the SWAT team?that came to investigate shot and killed Sims when he aimed his firearm at the unit.
Since his death, it has been revealed by Sims’s family that he suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but was refused treatment by the VA Hospital in Kansas City. Shawnda Anderson, his?sister, believes that the PTSD originated from all the carnage he witnessed on his tours in the Middle East.
Sims’s?mother who, according to TIME, is very familiar with the VA medical?system, seemed to attribute her son’s death to his preventable lack of medical care. She is quoted as saying:
“The last six months have been such a nightmare for him. The V.A. kept saying, ?we’ll get to you later…’ they’re overbooked; they put him off and they put him off and now he’s dead.”
Having enlisted in the army at the age of 17, Sims?served for six years before disabilities hastened his retirement from active duty. It was at this point that he started to behave uncharacteristically and unpredictably. One unnamed source told TIME that Sims suffered from frequent nightmares and flashbacks, both common symptoms of PTSD.
It is believed that this untreated?PTSD led to Sims’s erratic actions on the night of his death. These realizations?come at a time when the Veterans Administration is already under fire for denying former soldiers adequate healthcare and treatment?within a reasonable amount of time.
Sims’s traumatic death, having occurred just before Memorial Day, also gives a new depth to our understanding of the often-unchampioned sacrifices of American veterans.
Edited by D.H.
