Post Traumatic Syndrome

Just outside Bergerac on the route de Bordeaux is a little hotel with a small bar and shaded veranda called Chez Jakmy. We sometimes stop there for a coffee on the way to shop in Leclerc because Bertie, our border terrier, likes to play with the resident Bretagne Spaniel.

It was there last year that I met David, a British army officer who is partially blind after suffering Post-Traumatic Stress following a tour of duty in Iraq. He was hardly able to identify where exactly on his table the patronne had placed his glass of white wine. He spoke with a stammer and he was unsteady on his feet.

David’s story is very sad. After being invalided out of the army he has been unable find a job, his wife has left him, he has had to sell their house near Chelmsford in Essex and he is being cared for by his parents who live in the Dordogne near Bergerac. When his mother and father go on shopping trips to Bergerac they leave their son with the friendly patronne of Le Jakmy and her few regular customers.

When we last met David told me that, so far, eye specialists both here in France and in the UK have been unable to do much to help him restore his sight. He told me that he had been advised to rest and that his French specialist was hopeful that his eyesight would slowly return. The loss of sight, he was told, was due to his nervous disorder and time would be the healer.

David told me he had had little help from the army in finding future employment and he had received no counselling. He was expected to survive on a meagre Captain’s pension.
His plight reminded me of a documentary shown on ITV last Saturday called The Wounded Platoon. It told the story of a group of American infantrymen when they returned home from Iraq. There were drugs, drink, suicides, wife beatings and murders. They were terrified, paranoid damaged boys.

The failure of America in this case, and of Britain in David’s and many other similar cases, to care for the psychological damage wars do to those who have to fight in them is a worrying issue which is only going to get worse. Governments will have to take into account not only how much damage to inflict on the enemy but how much collateral shell shock will be inflicted on their sons.

When I called into the Jakmy yesterday I asked after David. The patronne told me he had gone to England for a few days to visit relatives. Sadly, she told me there had been no change in his condition and he still couldn’t find his glass of wine without her help.