Charleston Gazette
Vets taking PTSD drugs die in sleep
Hurricane man's death the 4th in West Virginia
By Julie Robinson
May 24, 2008

A Putnam County veteran who was taking medication prescribed for
post-traumatic stress disorder died in his sleep earlier this month,
in circumstances similar to the deaths of three other area veterans
earlier this year.

Derek Johnson, 22, of Hurricane, served in the infantry in the Middle
East in 2005, where he was wounded in combat and diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress disorder while hospitalized.

Military doctors prescribed Paxil, Klonopin and Seroquel for Johnson,
the same combination taken by veterans Andrew White, 23, of Cross
Lanes; Eric Layne, 29, of Kanawha City; and Nicholas Endicott of Logan
County. All were in apparently good physical health when they died in
their sleep.