News From the Cause
Trial Of Soldier Highlights Issues (KFOX-TV, EL PASO) 24 JUL 09)
August 02, 2009
By Daniel Novick
EL PASO, Texas -- The sentencing phase of the Edison Bayas trial has brought the jury and everyone watching the trial to the night of Dec. 29, 2007, when Bayas slammed his SUV into the vehicle of 19-year-old Valerie Talamantes.
Bayas later told authorities he had a flashback to his time in Iraq.
"It's pretty rare," said Dr. John Fortunato, who runs the Restoration and Resilience Center on Fort Bliss.
The center helps troops with post traumatic stress disorder get back to the front lines.
Fortunato would not comment specifically about the Bayas trial, but said when it comes to flashbacks, "We've got sun, we have sand, we have high temperatures, we have wind storms, it's very very much like the climate in Iraq."
Fortunato added that flashbacks, although rare, feel very realistic for the soldier.
"They believe they are in Iraq. They are not here, they are on Route Irish in Baghdad," Fortunato told KFOX. Fortunato said it is very unusual to have a flashback without the help of alcohol or some other substance. Bayas failed the field sobriety test the night of the crash.
"Since the war has begun, the number of referrals to the Army substance abuse program has gone up significantly. And so there is a correlation," he said.
But Fortunato warns not all troops with also have a substance abuse problem.
A Fort Bliss official took the stand Wednesday and admitted Bayas had slipped through the cracks, something Fortunato said almost never happens.
"It would be very hard for a soldier not to be on somebody's radar," he said.
Fortunato said the behavioral health screening process is extremely thorough for each and every soldier.
He added one in three troops come back with some condition, but only 10 to 15 percent suffer from significant behavioral health problems.
