{"id":6574,"date":"2018-03-20T20:46:23","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T00:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcpllutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6574"},"modified":"2018-04-03T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T19:10:28","slug":"william-draughon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/?p=6574","title":{"rendered":"William Draughon #IWasLutz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kansas City Judge Finds VA’s Negligence Led To Iraq Veteran’s Suicide<\/h3>\n

By<\/span>\u00a0DAN MARGOLIES<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u2022<\/i>\u00a0MAR 7, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Corporal<\/p>\n

Corporal William Draughon in his Marine Corps Blue Dress uniform.<\/em><\/div>\n
DONALD AND LAURIE DRAUGHON<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
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After a seven-month deployment in 2004 in Iraq as a squad leader and gunner, Cpl. William P. Draughon received a citation for heroic service and was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n

Several members of his squad were killed in Iraq, and when he returned stateside, the North Kansas City High School graduate began experiencing depression and nightmares and became withdrawn and moody. He also started drinking heavily.<\/p>\n

His friends and family described him as a changed man.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore he went to Iraq he was very fun-loving,\u201d says his father, Donald Draughon. \u201cHe was charismatic and he liked to be the life of a party, always joking around. Just a fun-loving guy. He loved life.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when he got back, Donald Draughon says, \u201che was very depressed, very moody, quick tempered.\u201d<\/p>\n

His step-mom, Laurie Draughon, says he talked a lot about the men who were killed under his command and other horrors he\u2019d experienced in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe couldn’t seem to get that monkey off his back,\u201d she says. \u201cHe did a lot of horrible things over there under the direction of the Marine Corps that really caused him some huge guilt feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least twice in 2005, Draughon got violent with his wife and once tried to strangle her. After they got divorced, he briefly dated a woman who became pregnant with his child.<\/p>\n

Another woman he dated broke up with him after he assaulted her. After they got back together, they had a child in November 2009.<\/p>\n

A third girlfriend called police after she woke up to find Draughon standing next to her bed, murmuring and carrying a knife.<\/p>\n

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Donald and Laurie Draughon say their son, William, was a changed man after he returned from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq in 2004.<\/div>\n
CREDIT DAN MARGOLIES \/ KCUR 89.3<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Diagnosed in 2005 with post-traumatic stress disorder, Draughon had several mental health appointments at the Kansas City VA Medical Center. He told therapists he felt guilty about the loss of troops under his command and heard explosions and the sound of choppers in his head.<\/p>\n

He also admitted to having suicidal thoughts and said he was drinking to self-medicate. Deemed a high risk for suicide during a hospitalization at the VA in 2009, he was given information after his discharge about a stress disorders treatment program in Topeka. Acceptance into the program, however, required at least 30 days of sobriety.<\/p>\n

After a doctor determined that his primary diagnosis was alcohol abuse and his secondary diagnosis was PTSD, he was admitted to a an addiction recovery treatment program at the Leavenworth VA. There his psychiatrist described many of his reported PTSD symptoms as extreme.<\/p>\n

Draughon had wanted to enter the VA\u2019s stress disorders treatment program in Topeka but failed to fill out the application. His treatment providers concluded that showed he wasn\u2019t yet ready for the program and that the addiction recovery program was a better treatment option.<\/p>\n

During his hospitalization at the Kansas City VA, Draughon had been flagged as being at high risk for suicide. Although no risk assessment was done, on Dec. 2, 2009, exactly 90 days later, a suicide prevention coordinator at the hospital removed the high-risk flag from his electronic medical records without explanation. No clinical assessment had been done.<\/p>\n

In the interim, Draughon had been hospitalized again after experiencing intense flashbacks and going on a drinking binge. At the hospital, Draughon rammed his head into a Plexiglass window and had to be restrained. He said he was having suicidal thoughts and had a plan to drive his car into a bridge.<\/p>\n

On Mar. 17, 2010, St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Draughon and his then-girlfriend went to Tanner\u2019s Bar and Grill where Draughon drank heavily. The two \u00a0began arguing. When they got home, they continued arguing and he smashed his cellphone on the front steps.<\/p>\n

Inside the house, his girlfriend saw Draughon walk out of his bedroom with a gun. He killed himself in front of his girlfriend and brother.<\/p>\n

His blood alcohol level was later found to be four times higher than the legal limit. Draughon was 28 when he died.<\/p>\n

His family was devastated. Believing the VA had been negligent in its care of Draughon, his father sued the government. The court later appointed the firm of Husch Blackwell to represent him. And in what is thought to be one of the few verdicts of its kind, last month U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson, who tried the case, found the government liable, ruling that the negligence of the Veterans Health Administration (VA) directly contributed to Draughon\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

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William Draughon and his parents at his North Kansas City High School graduation ceremony.<\/em><\/div>\n
CREDIT WILLIAM AND LAURIE DRAUGHON<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThere were policies in place at the VA that, had they been followed, provided Corporal Draughon with a chance, and with more than a chance, with appropriate care that he should have received,\u201d says Michael Raupp, one of Draughon\u2019s attorneys at Husch Blackwell.<\/p>\n

Christina Pyle, another attorney who represented Draughon, says Robinson\u2019s verdict is significant \u201cin that we have a situation where a veteran who went over to Iraq and served his country came back with severe PTSD and then turned to the VA, a government institution, for assistance. And we have an instance where that help wasn’t provided, and the government is being held accountable for what happens when they fail to assist our troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although reliable statistics on veteran suicides are hard to come by, it\u2019s thought that about 20 veterans take their own lives every day. The Veterans Health Administration has been praised and criticized for its suicide prevention efforts, but barriers to accessing care remain \u2013 and that seems to have been a factor in Draughon\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

The VA breached its own standards of care by removing Draughon from the high-risk list for suicides, Judge Julie Robinson concluded after a weeks-long bench trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis, coupled with the dearth of evidence that any clinician examined William, or reviewed his file before determining that the flag should be removed, is strong evidence that no provider exercised clinical judgment in removing the flag,\u201d Robinson wrote in her 42-page decision.<\/p>\n

The VA declined to comment on the case. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Kansas, which defended the VA, also declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Judge Robinson hasn\u2019t assessed damages yet, and for various legal reasons the award isn\u2019t likely to exceed several hundred thousand dollars. But Draughon\u2019s parents say they didn\u2019t pursue the case for the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved my son,\u201d Donald Draughon says. \u201cIt’s hard to even look at his picture still because it upsets me too much. I can’t go through his personal items yet; it\u2019s already been almost eight years. But when I think about it, it seems almost like yesterday or last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says he filed the lawsuit because he wanted to do what was right for William \u2013 and for his two children.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth my wife in our opinions, we felt that the VA had failed him somehow,\u201d he says. \u201cWe didn’t know exactly how, but we knew that they had failed him. This was their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Draughons say Judge Robinson\u2019s decision was bittersweet. They won the case but they\u2019re haunted by the thought that if the VA had followed its own policies, their son might still be alive.<\/p>\n

Husch Blackwell attorney Jeff Simon says the case should have a broad impact on what the government does \u201cto honor the duty that it owes these young men and young women who it\u2019s asked to fight its wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, President Trump signed an executive order to expand and transform the VA\u2019s focus on mental health services. Now Draughon\u2019s legal case in Kansas City may help spur that transformation.<\/p>\n

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Retrieved from: http:\/\/kcur.org\/post\/kansas-city-judge-finds-vas-negligence-led-iraq-veterans-suicide#stream\/0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City Judge Finds VA’s Negligence Led To Iraq Veteran’s Suicide By\u00a0DAN MARGOLIES\u00a0\u2022\u00a0MAR 7, 2018 Corporal William Draughon in his Marine Corps Blue Dress uniform. DONALD AND LAURIE DRAUGHON After a seven-month deployment in 2004 in Iraq as a squad leader and gunner, Cpl. William P. Draughon received a citation …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iwaslutz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}