Case Study 1
Mr. N. is a 71-year-old Vietnamese former lieutenant colonel who was imprisoned for 12 years by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. He was physically and emotionally tortured with stories of family members being killed or imprisoned in other re-education camps. Mr. N. felt lucky to be alive since 165,000 people died in Vietnam’s re-education camps since 1975. He came to U.S. in 1989 and had nightmares every night for the first couple of years. He feels estranged from his family since he was imprisoned for 12 years and his family became American strangers to him. His doctor said that he suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from his long imprisonment and torture. Now he has nightmares only when he feels stressed out. He deals with this stress by smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day and drinking beer. He has a hoarse cough and sometimes coughs up blood. His family brought him to see a physician because his herbal medicines did not work on his cough anymore and he cannot get to sleep at night.
