http://www.vancouversun.com/news/canada-in-afghanistan/Soldier+death+blamed+combat+stress+indifferent+military/5098452/story.html
WINDSOR, Ont. — Dodging bullets from children, stumbling across a boy with his face blown off and grasping a dead friend in his arms — the horror was more than Stefan Jankowski could bear.
Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hooked on prescription drugs, the 25-year-old Windsor soldier returned home from the war in Afghanistan to face a losing battle with his own demons.
His family said he died Saturday from a prescription drug overdose, after getting little help from the military he dreamt of serving from boyhood.
They want answers, saying the military "washed their hands of him" and didn't give Jankowski the help he needed after he was discharged.
"You can't put a gun in his hand, he can't even take care of himself," said father Bruce Timothy. "So they don't need him anymore.
"He's been found in the front yard of his house jumping over the railing, thought he was still in the war, running around on the grass in his underwear."
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop following traumatic events that threaten great bodily harm. It can lead to anxiety, depression, violence and suicide.
Jankowski's problems worsened when he got hooked on painkillers and drugs prescribed for PTSD. He overdosed sometime after his lawyer Paul Esco dropped him off early Saturday at his rooming house. His body was found the next day.
Jankowski leaves behind two daughters Destiny, 7, Alexis, 4.
"He had enough drugs in his room to service his problems for a long time," said Timothy.
According to the National Defence Department, five per cent of soldiers deployed to war zones suffer from PTSD, depression or both. Roughly 37,000 Canadian soldiers have deployed to Afghanistan, which suggests that about 1,850 of them have developed PTSD.
As of March 31 this year, 14,111 Canadian Forces members and veterans were receiving disability benefits from Veterans Affairs Canada for various "operational stress injuries." Of those, 9,928 have PTSD.
Cpl. Hunter Kersey, who served with Jankowski in Afghanistan from Oct. 2009 to May 2010, said he knew his friend was in trouble.
"I watched the whole thing unfold," said Kersey. "It was a classic case of post-traumatic stress disorder. It was a downward spiral right from the beginning. It wasn't good as soon as he came back."
They were in southern Kandahar with the Royal Canadian Dragoons, doing reconnaissance and looking for improvised explosive devices.
"He was the first guy in and the last guy out," said Kersey. "He often volunteered for the most dangerous positions."
It was a job Jankowski dreamt about his whole life.
"When he was four years old, that was all he talked about, joining the military," said his mother Georgina Duguay, clutching her son's dog tags. "He was just so interested in it. When he came of age, he finally got his dream of going to the military.
"I was proud of him. Just seeing him in his uniform, he just seemed so happy and content."
That was before Afghanistan.
"At one point he told me a boy, half his face was missing," said Duguay. "He said, 'God mom, you can't believe the stuff you'd see over here.'"
Esco said he also heard some horrific stories from Jankowski. The troubled soldier once talked about being in a convoy when the truck behind him, carrying his friend, drove over a bomb.
"He ran back, grabbed his best friend out," said Esco. "His best friend died in his arms.
"His friend just said, 'Tell my parents I love them.'"
Esco said his client was also haunted by having to fire on what appeared to be children shooting at them.
"'They didn't all shoot at me,' he'd say, 'but you didn't know which ones, so we were told to shoot at these people.'"
It was also clear to Jankowski's family there were problems. He hallucinated. He was plagued by nightmares. He couldn't sleep. He would close his eyes and hear gunfire.
On the day he died, he picked up 40 Oxycodone pills from the drugstore. He was also on Diazepam, claudadine and Rhovane, to name a few.
"He told me when he does the drugs that it takes everything away," said Duguay. "It didn't hurt anymore."
In addition to the PTSD meds, Jankowski had been wounded and was prescribed drugs for that.
"That intensified all the drugs because then he was on painkillers and he was on stuff to sleep," said his aunt, Rachel Duguay. "It just totally escalated."
The drugs also got him in trouble with the law. Jankowski had been charged with mischief, uttering threats, breach of recognizance, fraud and passing forged documents.
"He was addicted and he was going to do anything he had to do to get the money to get drugs," said Timothy. "It was a problem."
He also landed behind bars for going AWOL from CFB Petawawa a couple times.
"They gave him his medications and said you're off for the week," said Timothy. "Then he just never went back because he was on drugs. So they arrested him."
Jankowski's family said they want to know where the military assistance was as he spiralled out of control.
Officials knew Jankowski was troubled before he was discharged, said Timothy. He added that the soldier was given drugs but little other support or assessment.
"The military was good to him, as a trooper," said Timothy. "But when it came to giving him professional help because of the things he saw and the things that happened, the military made mistakes. Their program is improper. The people that need help are not getting it, or they're not getting it fast enough."
Someone should have caught on to the fact that Jankowski was in serious need of help before he was discharged, Timothy said.
"When you come home and you're all messed up and they put you on drugs and they've got you on painkillers and medications so you can sleep, obviously there's a problem," he said. "They ignored that. They just said, 'You're discharged.'"
Timothy said his son had tried to get into programs out of town, but got stalled on waiting lists.
"They should have shipped him right there. Not here," said Timothy. "He should have went straight to there to clean him up, make sure he's OK before he leaves. Don't just send him to a doctor and give him a pile of pills and say, 'You're on your own.'"
He said the most help Jankowski got was some group counselling sessions that included horseback riding.
"Going horseback riding for an afternoon with a couple guys that were in the army before, to me, is not going to clear up his drug problems," said Timothy. "And it's not going to clear his head."
The Canadian Forces said there was no one available Wednesday to comment. A spokeswoman with Veterans Affairs Canada said in an email that organization has "greatly expanded" its mental-health services, including doubling to 10 the number of specialized clinics.
Janice Summerby said nine of those are outpatient clinics. The other is a residential treatment clinic at Ste. Anne's Hospital near Montreal. They also provide tele-mental health services, she said.
Jankowski also went to local hospitals in the days leading up to his death. Esco said he took him to triage at Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital last Thursday night.
"He told them he was suicidal," said Esco, possibly the last person to see Jankowski alive.
Esco said he left Jankowski in the waiting room and told him to call if there were any problems.
"Apparently they wouldn't take him," said Esco.
The following day he was taken to Metropolitan hospital. He didn't get admitted there either. Esco picked him up around midnight.
Esco dropped Jankowski off at home and told him to call Monday. His body was discovered Sunday.
"They didn't keep him," Duguay said of the hospitals. "If they would have kept him, he might still be alive today."
Officials with both hospitals said they couldn't talk about specific cases. Hotel-Dieu Grace spokesman Steve Erwin did say that when someone appears with mental health issues, "it's taken seriously" with multi-layered assessments. But if the patient arrives voluntarily, he said, they have to agree to treatment.
"If a person is here voluntarily, we have no right under the law to hold them," Erwin said. "We can't force someone to stay here against their will."
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