Quilt highlights battles against PTSD
Published 12:10 am Tuesday, September 1, 2015
- Nurse Jo Ann Hahn, retired from the Hefner VA Medical Center, made this quilt using the T-shirts of veterams she served in the mental health building. The veterans in the program gave her the t-shirts with the names of their military units. Hahn, a veterans herself, was a captain in the Army nurse corps. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
A quilt hanging at the Hefner VA Medical Center honors veterans who have passed through its program to treat combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“Our Battles Don’t End with the War,” says one square.
“He who shed blood and tears with me shall forever by my brother,” says another.
Joann Hahn, a member of the Hefner VA Medical Center staff, made the quilt from T-shirts given to veterans treated in the Specialized Inpatient PTSD Unit. The quilt hangs in a specially lit spot in the lobby of Building 8, a $16 million structure that opened in 2014.
Veterans in the treatment program go through six weeks of intense trauma processing in groups. As one of the shirts says, “Come Together, Leave Together.”
The shirt squares date back to when the program was in an older building. Their sentiments are timeless: “Some Wounds Can’t Be Seen.”
