List date(s) this work was published or aired.
1. Living Miracles: Survivors of Gunshot Wounds to the Head, Jan. 13, 2011. 2. Chemical Suicide: Austin Mueller’s story, June 9, 2011. 3. Martinez Burn Recovery: From Coma to ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ Oct. 11, 2011. 4. Firefighter PTSD-Suicide, Sept. 9, 2011.
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Each of these stories puts a face or faces on a medical issue or health phenomenon: _How four people survived gunshot wounds to the head and the aftermath of those wounds. _Chemical suicide as a fast, highly efficient way of ending one’s life but also inadvertently endangering first responders. _A GI’s improble recovery of flexibility and mobility after suffering severe burns in an Iraqi IED explosion. _How the macho culture of firehouses makes it hard for stressed and depressed firefighters to get the help they need, sometimes resulting in suicide. Although the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought out heroism in many firefighters, many remain plagued by PTSD and depression. This story suggests that despite some progress in trying to change firehouse culture, they still work in a largely macho environment where mental health help is perceived as a sign of weakness. That was the case for a Philly firefighter who committed suicide in June 2011, partly due to unappreciated survivor’s guilt.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
These four stories included research using a variety of online sources, including newspaper, TV and radio reports; online expert directories; and some briefing documents written for law enforcement and other agencies,
Explain types of human sources used.
I tracked down most of the subjects in these stories on my own, often after going to multiple news outlets to examine their reader responses, which became a rich source of interview subjects. I went to law enforcement sources for chemical and firefighter suicide pieces, and to hospitals and physicians for the gunshot wounds to the head story. I wrote the J.R. Martinez story after meeting him at my LAX airport gate en route back to the East Coast and proposing a story about how he regained his mobility and flexiblity in severely burned skin. After reaching him through his publicist, I tracked down the former Army plastic surgeon who first treated Martinez (now in private practice in South Carolina), the priest at the Army hospital who got to know him and burn advocates to get a sense of how his appearance on the show might help bring attention to burn survivors. I had no idea he would win when I met him just a week into the program.
Results:
1. An Illinois firefighter who has spearheaded a one-man effort to bring more recognition of firefighter PTSD and suicide (and whom I quoted in my first story about firefighter suicide), told me that he thinks my coverage has had some influence, because he finally was brought in to help Philadelphia firefighters better deal with this growing problem. 2. More than 10 days after my chemical suicide story ran, a reporter for The New York Times did a piece on chemical suicide, which included an interview with the toxicologist I interviewed for my story. 3. The LA-based Associated Press reporter who had written about a chemical suicide in the Hollywood Hills in May emailed me to say she was unaware that the episode in her neighborhood was part of a larger trend, and congratulated me on the depth of my research and finding so many other cases to show this is a national, as well as international public health issue.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
None on any of the four stories.
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
This chemical suicide story was one of the most difficult I’ve ever undertaken, in part because it demands sensitivity, and because I spent 72 straight hours thinking nonstop about a young man who lay down in a car full of highly toxic fumes and then died. For each of my stories, my goal was to bring a subject, phenomenon or trend to life on our ABC News website through a combination of interviews, photos, videos and authoritative voices. The phrase “chemical suicide” doesn’t mean much by itself, but seeing the deep sadness in the eyes of a young man with intractable depression just before he killed himself can grab a reader or viewer, educate them enough that they might be able to stop such an incident from occurring. When it comes to tough subjects: never give up, and trust your instincts. I knew Austin Mueller’s mother was so outraged by insensitive website postings that she would want to share information about her her son’s death. I thought the parents of a the Philadelphia firefighter might want to share the best of who he was — and I felt flattered that his mother told me afterward that she considered me a friend.