"He Did Not Get The Care He Needed"
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In national news, U.S. Marine Clay Hunt was an American hero who not only served his country, but also tried to prevent so many other troops with posttraumatic stress from taking their own lives. But now he has also become a painful example of the price of dysfunction at the Veterans Administration. Hunt served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He was wounded in Fallujah, shot through the wrist by a sniper's bullet while on patrol. When he came home with post traumatic stress, he made humanitarianism part of his therapy traveling with other veterans to Haiti and Chile after the earthquakes to lend a hand. He went to Washington, D.C. to fight for veteran's rights and even had a brief appearance in a public service announcement about suicide prevention for vets. But then tragically, in 2011, this young man, with so much promise, took his own life. Today the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is pointing to Hunt's story and others as examples of the horrible human cost of dysfunction at the VA because their emotional wounds were not adequately addressed.</s>REP. JEFF MILLER (R), FLORIDA: Each of these young men faced barrier after barrier in their struggle to get help. Each one of these young men eventually succumbed to suicide.</s>TAPPER: Clay's parents were among those sitting before the House Veterans Affairs Committee today, to push Congress to pass the suicide prevention for Americans Veterans Act and to pressure the VA to do better. Susan Selke, the mother of Clay Hunt, is here with me now. It's an honor to have you here and first of all, obviously, I am so sorry for your loss and I thank you for the courage it must take to talk about it to help others. You've said that if Clay had better care, he might be alive today. Do you blame the VA?</s>SUSAN SELKE, MOTHER OF MARINE VETERAN WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE: Blame is a hard word.</s>TAPPER: Do you hold them at all responsible?</s>SELKE: Yes. He did not get the care that he need. Obviously, it ended in his death. Just the general protocol, I guess, seems to be medication. Mostly medication, or at that time. And just difficulties in navigating the VA system just made, you know, the road very difficult.</s>TAPPER: And you think he should have had therapy? You think he should have had inpatient treatment? What do you think could have made the difference that he didn't get?</s>SELKE: From what I understand -- and I'm not a doctor, but in addition to medication, you need to have some kind of therapy going along with it, to get the best results.</s>TAPPER: It's my understanding that five weeks after his death, the VA finally approved his appeal for increased disability benefits.</s>SELKE: That's right.</s>TAPPER: He had like 30 percent and wanted 100 percent. What would that difference possibly have made?</s>SELKE: It would make a huge difference financially to him. When you separate from -- when he separated from the Marines, he was given disability ratings, 30 percent for post-traumatic stress, I think 10 percent for tinnitus, something else. I can't remember. But that summer he was working at a bike shop as a summer job before he started school. He was going back to school that fall. And he was asked to leave the job because the panic attacks interfered so much. He would have to leave the premises and go outside and gather himself and then come back in. That was pretty devastating to him, to realize, wow, I really am having trouble holding a job in a bike shop. And at that point, he appealed that disability rating understanding that long term he really had no idea what he might be facing. So he files that appeal and that would have been the fall of 2009 and somewhere, somehow, the file got lost. He had to re-create all his medical records.</s>TAPPER: I've heard so many stories like this.</s>SELKE: Send this back in. That was fall of 2009. Clay died March of 2011 and five weeks later, I get a letter, addressed to me, regarding his disability appeal, which is now complete and his PTS grading is 100 percent.</s>TAPPER: Do you see him as a casualty of war as surely as if he had been killed in Iraq by the enemy?</s>SELKE: Absolutely.</s>TAPPER: You do?</s>SELKE: Absolutely. I said that back in April of 2011 in an interview. Someone asked me, ironically, from CNN, same question. There's no doubt in my mind.</s>TAPPER: Because you knew him before he went to war.</s>SELKE: Absolutely.</s>TAPPER: And you knew him after war?</s>SELKE: His war experience is why he died. The lack of the right care, the correct combination of things that he need, psychologically to get over that hump with post-traumatic stress, panic attacks, going to a football with family or friends and the fireworks going off or just the loud noises. And he would go into a full-fledge panic attack. I mean, this is devastating. I have to live with a lot of conditions I didn't think I would really have to live with.</s>TAPPER: What is your message to people at home right now who are watching maybe some of them have PTS. Maybe some of them love somebody who has PTS. What is your message to them?</s>SELKE: I think my message would be what Clay would say and what he did. Tell somebody. Be open about it. Forget about the stigma. There is no stigma. You have an injury, a mental injury that needs to be treated and taken care of just as if you had a broken arm, broken leg or whatever. You need care. You need it now. Don't put it off. Delaying only makes it worse. As far as getting the right care, obviously -- and this is what happened with Clay. In the mental help area, there just was not a seamless transition from active duty to VA. When he was active duty, he was injured and diagnosed in 2007. So for two years, he received care for post- traumatic stress while he was active duty. And that was -- seemed to be fairly good. He seemed to be doing OK. It was when he got out and went to the VA, it all went downhill. He had to be such a proactive advocate for his own care. And it was exhausting to the point he just couldn't do it anymore.</s>TAPPER: Susan Selke, thank you for your courage. We are sorry for your loss. If you are watching at home, you have PTS or having a difficult time, there is love for you and there is help for you. We'll be right back.