I got killed in Vietnam and I did not know it
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2003 Jan / Feb VOL V NO 1.
Abstracted by:
T K Kasiviswanathan
'Merc

One Vietnam War veteran, who died later of cancer after suffering various illnesses said:

‘I got killed in Vietnam-and I didn’t even know it’.

The above remark sums up the pitiable state of those PTSD1  patients after the trauma they underwent by participating in Vietnam War. (See my other article in the general Section of previous issue 6/02.) This case was treated and reported by Dr Gail Derin.

One Vietnam War veteran, in particular, started a motorcycle gang when he got out of the service. Loyalty and pride and an invitation to flirt with death were his ideals. Yet there was another side. He told the doctor of his inclination to throw a woman on the mirror in the department store when she unexpectedly bumped into him. Instead he threw the meat piece on the mirror and left. (This was his habituated reaction of treating every one as enemy in war).

Another instance of his reliving the trauma was when his wife brought home some Chinese herbs to try to treat his frequent headaches. She had put it on the stove to brew. He had been in the other room, shrouded in darkness, lying still so that the migraine headache, he was experiencing would not penetrate deeper than it already had. As the smell sifted past him he said it built up inside him until he could no longer contain it and yelled, "the smell, get rid of the smell!" (It reminded him of the smell of cooking of herbs by Vietnamese women). He said he was a scout for 15 months, searching out the enemy. Now he was more fearful of the ones who were no longer there. One of his most painful and disgusting memories was in Cambodia, where he was ordered to come into a village after it had been "cleaned out" and check the bodies. Many dead women and children had to be gathered. He was again ordered to return back to that same village 3 weeks later to dispose of those same bodies that had been left out. He couldn’t get out of his senses the rotten smell as well as the sight. Daily he was reminded of what he brought back with him from the war. Whenever he would eat, it felt like a bristle brush was scraping his intestines. He said that he has always bloody stools and with pain, since he had come home from Vietnam.

His children were born with birth defects commonly seen with dioxin exposure. One was born blind with severe acne.

When the doctor visited his house he found that a camouflaged parachute flared out to cover the ceiling in his home. Guns, "war trophies", pictures of the war hung defiantly. They were saying as if "If he had to live through it, you could at least look at it." Taking the type of trauma experienced by the patient as participant in Vietnam War, Dr Derin selected Mercury on the following indications:

"Delusion that everyone is the enemy. Often veterans have said, "The enemy did-so I did" But even 30 years later this state is still active. They are suspicious, commonly looking at other’s hands for weapons. Anyone at any time could be "the enemy". They often will have an arsenal in their home or carry a weapon on them, or they have built a fort out of their home. They feel isolated and withdrawn from others, not knowing how they could fit into society, not necessarily wanting to. They can be very tightly bonded to their family or estranged from them, yet protective. Mercurius has helped many by stopping blood stools and foul secretions that have been with them since the war. It is also interesting to note that many of the explosives used in Vietnam contained mercury.",

In this patient’s case all these symptoms were present. He was treated with Mercury LM potencies. The follow-up revealed that initially his migraine headaches, which made him vomit and insist on complete darkness, got worse. Rashes broke out.The blood in his stools, however, stopped. Memories of the war ambushed him whenever he would try to sleep. He would stay up days at a time at first to avoid their return. (This is the aggravation phase of our remedies which may make the lives of the PTSD patients miserable for a time. Here Bach flower remedies may be more helpful-KV). Eventually the memories faded and he could have the memories rather than the past choking him with fear. He also talked about the Veteran Association and the groups of patients he now helps to assist.

"What a difference", he related to this doctor. "For years I would say nothing in these groups, though they would threaten me for not participating. So one day I talked and didn’t stop until I saw one guy puke, another wet his pants and another guy run out. I guess they didn’t really want to hear it. Now I have made my peace and want others to feel that peace too."

After the treatment, the doctor said that he could hardly recognize him from the man he first met. His skin and eyes are clear. He speaks of the war as an event in his life rather than a part of him being left there. Headaches come only occasionally. The hesitancy in his speech is gone. He can sleep through the night, the nightmares are gone. His hand has fully healed. Periodically, when he was angry he would hit the wall with his hand rather than strike out. He had broken the bones in his hand repeatedly before. He can now eat foods that he would cause him to have cramps that would double him over, especially acidic foods. He is very active in his community today. He says he feels like he did when he was 18, before he went into the war. I feel like I have a chance and I want to experience the good that life has to offer. His wife held through until she could see that he was doing better, but decided to leave him. She said, "Although he is my best friend, I can’t live with him anymore. I am happy to see how much he has changed. I just wished it would have happened 10 years ago."

"I have seen several wives of veterans live through their own war of sorts. They and their children need homeopathic care for the emotional scars of distance set by their husbands or the struggles of warding off ghosts of the past."