HUFFINGTON
09.22.13
INVISIBLE CASUALTIES
report noted, is an oxycodonebased painkiller that “can be
habit forming.”
Joshua’s drug habit surged.
From the time of his operation
in December 2009 until the end
of May 2010, he never went longer than two days without opiate
pain pills. Withdrawal symptoms
— muscle soreness, diarrhea and
anxiety — would kick in within
four hours without a dose, the
Navy later determined.
Early that winter, on Jan. 30,
2010, Joshua showed up at the
Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va., complaining of nausea and vomiting, muscle pain,
cramps and anxiety. He was given
a dose of Zofran, an anti-nausea
medication, and sent home. On
his patient care report, his smoking is indicated (half a pack per
day), but the section on alcohol
and drug use is crossed out.
Joshua’s roommate at the
time in Virginia Beach, near the
sprawling naval facilities in Norfolk, was Elliott Miranda. He
and Joshua were battle buddies
from Iraq. They were beyond best
friends, bound together by shared
combat. Elliott saw pretty quickly
“He was more standoffish,
not his old energetic
self. When I tried talking
to him he’d say that
nothing was going on,
he didn’t have a problem.”
that something was wrong.
“Once he had the surgery I
noticed that he was doing a lot
of pain medicine, and I never
said anything because I figured
he knew what he was doing,” Elliott told me. “But then things
started getting worse. He was
more standoffish, not his old energetic self. When I tried talking
to him he’d say that nothing was
going on, he didn’t have a problem. But I noticed he was making
★
Joshua (in
black) with
two of his
boot camp,
basic tra ining
and Riverine
Squadron
brothers, and
his mother.