Mother of solider collapses & dies
Find a Conversation
| Tue, 10-05-2004 - 3:19pm |
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.

Pages
<
savage
adj 1: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal
beatings"; "cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod
treatment of the kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious
kicks"
2: wild and menacing; "a ferocious dog"
3: without civilizing influences; "barbarian invaders";
"barbaric practices"; "a savage people"; "fighting is
crude and uncivilized especially if the weapons are
efficient"-Margaret Meade; "wild tribes"
4: marked by extreme and violent energy; "a ferocious beating";
"fierce fighting"; "a furious battle"
n 1: a member of an uncivilized people
2: a cruelly rapacious person
v 1: attack brutally and fiercely
2: criticize harshly or violently; "The press savaged the new
President"
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Savage \Sav"age\ (?; 48), a.
1. Of or pertaining to the forest; remote from human abodes
and cultivation; in a state of nature; wild; as, a savage
wilderness.
2. Wild; untamed; uncultivated; as, savage beasts.
Cornels, and savage berries of the wood. --Dryden.
3. Uncivilized; untaught; unpolished; rude; as, savage life;
savage manners.
What nation, since the commencement of the Christian
era, ever rose from savage to civilized without
Christianity? --E. D.
Griffin.
4. Characterized by cruelty; barbarous; fierce; ferocious;
inhuman; brutal; as, a savage spirit.
Syn: Ferocious; wild; uncultivated; untamed; untaught;
uncivilized; unpolished; rude; brutish; brutal;
heathenish; barbarous; cruel; inhuman; fierce; pitiless;
merciless; unmerciful; atrocious. See Ferocious.>>
Somehow or other, none of these words seem appropriate to describe freedom, at least not the freedom with which I'm familiar. But then again, Bushies seem to live in an alternate universe.
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
Congress SHOULD have debated the rationale for Iraq--and didn't. Time should have been given to vetting ALL so-called "intelligence"--and wasn't. The leaders of the free world should have conferred and presented a united plan of action to counter terrorist activities--but didn't. The Commander-in-Chief should have focused his just ire on Osama bin Ladin and devoted the nation's energies to capturing him and using HIM as an example--and didn't. And having gone haring after the truly confounding idea of attacking another country's leader altogether, this administration should have given thought to what might happen if their script for the war wasn't followed. Unsurprisingly, but tragically, they didn't.
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
I will find the lyrics, but in respond to your question. I am
As far as Kerry and Edwards believing in the threat--well, let's just put it this way. They were not my first choice to succeed Bush/Cheney as president and vice president.
You're correct that soldiers do not get to choose the causes for which they will fight. If you read my response to one of savagefreedom's posts you will see that there were measures which should have been taken to ensure that they were fighting both justly and wisely. But this war was neither just nor wise.
I was using the term "soccer moms" to describe a group considered politically significant. Look back at my post. I did not specifically put you in that demographic. Actually, I believe the more common term now used is "security moms". And they're the ones who seem most susceptible to blandishments from the Bushies who seem to be promising that the war in Iraq will keep their children safe.
You have the right to your beliefs as do all of us. But I see nothing to prove that invading and occupying Iraq has made us safer. The repressive measures that are being used to try to give some semblance of security to Iraq are not winning hearts and minds. If anything, the war is making the hatred of the US much more virulent and widespread. And over a thousand US troops have died, thousands more have been maimed and even more will carry ghastly memories all their lives. IMHO, we have begun another Vietnam. We have given fundamentalist and even more moderate Muslims a reason to hate, fear, and conduct jihad on us.
Now we wait. Time will be the judge, jury--and executioner, if the wrong decisions were made.
Edited 10/6/2004 9:42 am ET ET by gettingahandle
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
No, I don't yet have a handle on the human condition. I'm working on it but lack the arrogance to claim I understand it fully.
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
Amen to that.
I have been saying this for a long time, and I truly beleive that the reason that the insurgents are fighting so hard is that they know what is at stake. A free and democratic Iraq severely hampers the terrorists "home base" areas, as a free Iraq will also show others in the region that it is possible to have the same thing, where the people can have an actualy voice in their government.
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
Last night, Cheney used El Salvador as an example of a nation where he considered military force to have fostered democracy. Interesting that he didn't refer to either Japan or Germany any more. El Salvador. Oh yeah, the parallels to Iraq are overwhelming--NOT!
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
Pages