Mother of solider collapses & dies

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Mother of solider collapses & dies
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Tue, 10-05-2004 - 3:19pm
Here's the original link: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/10/05/soldiers.mother.ap/index.html

Mother of soldier killed in Iraq collapses, dies

'Her grief was so intense,' hospital worker says

Tuesday, October 5, 2004 Posted: 12:28 PM EDT (1628 GMT)

TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- A 45-year-old woman collapsed and died days after learning her son had been killed in Iraq, and just hours after seeing his body.

Results of an autopsy were not immediately released, but friends of Karen Unruh-Wahrer said she couldn't stop crying over losing her 25-year-old son, Army Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, who was killed by enemy fire near Baghdad on September 25.

"Her grief was so intense -- it seemed it could have harmed her, could have caused a heart attack. Her husband described it as a broken heart," said Cheryl Hamilton, manager of respiratory care services at University Medical Center, where Unruh-Wahrer worked as a respiratory therapist.

Unruh, a combat engineer, had been in Iraq less than a month when he was shot during an attack on his unit.

Several days after learning of his death, his mother had gone to the hospital complaining of chest pains, Hamilton said. She was feeling better the next day but saw her son's body Saturday morning and collapsed that night in her kitchen.

Her husband, Dennis Wahrer -- also a respiratory therapist -- and other family members performed CPR but Unruh-Wahrer was pronounced dead that night.

Autopsy results won't be released until relatives are notified, said Dr. Bruce Parks, Pima County chief medical examiner. There was no immediate response to a call to his office before business hours Tuesday.

Robert Unruh will be buried Friday at the Southern Arizona Veterans' Memorial Cemetery. His mother's body will accompany her son's in the procession to the cemetery.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-02-2004
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 6:25pm
OH! MY LORD!!!! this ia truly awful!!! I hate this war, nothing good is comming out of it just death!!! just call me a peacenick or peacemonger!!!!! PEACE FOR ALL MAN KIND!!!!!
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 7:22pm
I almost lost one of my children to an illness once, I did feel like I would want to curl up and die if it had actually happened, so I don't for a minute doubt the woman's reaction. Which is why I feel so strongly about fighting terrorism-to protect my children from a horrible death. God bless her and her son for giving his life to help protect the rest of us.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 8:57pm
Here's the stinker. That mother's death and her son's death were completely unnecessary and did NOTHING to keep you or your children safer. I wish I could take all women who look at their young children and fear to lose them in a terrorist attack. I would say to them, "Listen--your children will grow up. One day your sons will be young men. Will you want them going off because a horse's ass politician decides he wants to invade another country, develops some trumped up threat, tries to tie it to a national tragedy though such a tie does NOT exist, and sends your beloved child off to fight in a war that isn't winnable?"

It's a bitter bitter bread to try to chew and swallow--and as a soldier's mother, I know. God help all soccer mothers who think they're keeping their children safe by sacrificing the blood of other women's children. Iraq was not a threat, and the war there is totally wrong.

Gettingahandle

Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.

Avatar for savagefreedom
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2003
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 10:08pm
Did you ever ask your son or daughter why they become a soldier? Do you tell them how disappoint you are int hem being a soldier? I cannot even imagine posting the below post, my DH, my BIL, my best friend, and about 7 other people who I am close to are soldiers and military officers.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-05-2004 - 10:32pm
There are causes for which dying is, if not gladsome, at least understandable. Iraq is NOT one of them. My son was not happy to go to Iraq but thankfully came home safely. He does NOT want to go back because he knows how faux this war is. However, he has been raised to be a young man of integrity and will follow the orders he is given. I encouraged my son to be a soldier--but little knew how recklessly his life and those of others would be used.

If the blood of one's child is to be offered up, let it be for a legitimate reason, not for the godforsaken idiocy of a nitwit politician. In case you have forgotten--Saddam Hussein was not linked to 9/11, there are no WMD, the 5,000 terrorists who supposedly were the core of the Iraqi insurgency have been killed, several times over and somehow seem to keep popping back up like dragon's teeth. If this doesn't sound ominous to you, it should.

I notice that your list of military relations does not include a child. Well, maybe it wouldn't matter, child or other kin, for someone who proclaims that their freedom is "savage". I believe in civility, not "might makes right". I also don't buy into the war rhetoric and am not convinced that bloodshed is necessary for freedom.

Gettingahandle,

Military mother, former military wife, former ROTC cadet

Gettingahandle

Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-23-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 12:55am
<"Listen--your children will grow up. One day your sons will be young men. Will you want them going off because a horse's ass politician decides he wants to invade another country, develops some trumped up threat, tries to tie it to a national tragedy though such a tie does NOT exist, and sends your beloved child off to fight in a war that isn't winnable?">

I don't believe it was a trumped up threat (neither did Kerry or Edwards for that matter), Bush never tried to link Saddam with 9/11, he only said that 9/11 taught us that we cannot afford to wait until threats become relaities before acting. He didn't just "decide to invade" Iraq, Iraq was given every opportunity to live up to the terms if its' surrender and comply with the resolutions. If I had a child fighting there I would direct my anger to those countries who backed down from their own resolutions for monetary gain-France, Russia and Germany. They are the countries who emboldened the resistance, they are the countries who chose the billions they were making from Saddam over the security of the world and the legitimacy of the UN and the resolutions that it passes.

And no, I hope never to send my child to war. But if he did choose to volunteer to serve his country I would understand that soldiers don't get to pick and choose which causes they will fight for and which they won't-they have a job to do and they do it, and those back here broadcasting to the world that it's all for nothing certainly don't help matters much.



My children don't play soccer, but thanks for putting me in your stereotypical box. With all due respect, there are just as many soldiers' mothers who support the president and our action in Iraq as oppose it, if not more. I don't want to sacrifice anyone's blood unnecessarily-the job of our military is to defend our national security and that is what I believe they are doing. In my opinion none of their deaths have been in vain, and ultimately their deaths will save many lives both here and in Iraq.



Again, I disagree. Not only was Iraq a threat, but the only real way to defeat terrorism is to bring freedom and prosperity to the parts of the world where desperation breeds terrorism. That is what I believ our troops are doing, and I believe it is a more htan worthwhile cause.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-11-2004
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 2:33am
Why in the world did you ever enlist if you truly feel this way? Somehow I don't believe your story. You would not be in the military, have a husband in the military and a son if you believed that someday you would have to go to war. A true soldier is proud to serve his country.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 3:08am

Like I said elsewhere... Isn't it so incredibly ODD how it is those who oppose the war on Iraq that keep stubbornly

Djie

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 7:51am
Apparently, you did not read my post carefully. I said "former"--for both military wife and ROTC cadet. And ROTC stands for Reserve Officer Training Course. An officer does not enlist.

Your comment that a true soldier is proud to serve his country is both sexist (since many women are also serving in the Armed Forces) and jingoistic. It is one thing to serve the country whose Constitution you have been sworn to uphold. It is an entirely different thing to be used as cannon fodder by unscrupulous and/or inept politicians who fabricate a case from very flimsy "proof".

Amazingingly, you don't believe my story (which I know to be true) but you believe Dubya who has been shown to be wrong on a number of different issues. Hmmmmm. It would seem that you choose, just like this administration, to believe only those things with which you agree. So be it--your loss, not mine.

Gettingahandle

Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.

Avatar for savagefreedom
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2003
Wed, 10-06-2004 - 8:31am

If you only know the true meaning behind the term Savage Freedom. First and foremost it comes from a song by Killing Joke form an album called Democracy. Other then that I will not go into the personal meaning og the term. But freedom is savage, and having

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