Inquiry learns about gap in care for former soldier Lionel Desmond
GUYSBOROUGH, N.S. — A nurse who assessed Lionel Desmond two months before the mentally ill veteran killed his family and himself in 2017 says his symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appeared to be getting worse during a period in 2016 when he wasn’t receiving any treatment.
Heather Wheaton, a mental health crisis clinician, told a provincial fatality inquiry Tuesday she met Desmond on Oct. 24, 2016 when he showed up with his wife Shanna at the emergency room at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S.
At the time, Wheaton filled out a mental health assessment form, noting the former infantryman was suffering from interrupted sleep, nightmares, loss of appetite, aggression towards objects, conflict with his wife and increasing anger, depression and anxiety.
As well, Wheaton noted that Desmond was diagnosed with PTSD in 2011, had paranoid ideas about his spouse, lacked concentration and was “not sure how to live as a civilian” since his discharge from the army in 2015 — eight years after he served in Afghanistan.