Rush University Medical Center's program helps veterans rediscover life after PTSD

CHICAGO - A one-of-a-kind Rush University Medical Center program is helping veterans rediscover life after PTSD. 

Army veteran Peter Leguizamon can't talk much about his missions overseas, as many of them are top secret. 

Now, thanks to the Road Home Program, he is able to talk about how that service affected him. 

"I had a good 16 years in the Army and I had some tough times. I call them anchor points, so making a decision up in that turret to take a life, I'm dropping an anchor.  I'm trying to save a life, and failing – that's an anchor, and it kind of pulls you. It pulls on you the further away you move from it, it's still heavy," said Peter. 

Since launching in 2014, the Road Home Program has provided intensive outpatient care to 6,000 veterans at no cost to them. Seventy-five percent of participants have a reduction in PTSD symptoms. 

"As opposed to other places where I'd have an appointment a month, I'm meeting with my doctors twice a day. So one, there's no time to overthink the next session. You're going right into it, so the momentum really helped but also it was having all those people in once place, all working together to find a solution I needed," Peter said.

"They reached out and they asked me if I needed anything for our family, so it was always that constant communication that we weren't getting in other places that we got from them," said Peter's wife, Vanessa Leguizamon. 

Peter comes from a proud military family. Now, he's proud to show off his hidden battle wounds in hopes that he can impact another veteran struggling to find the right care. 

"If you're looking at your life and there's things that you want to do that you're not able to do because of what happened in the war, raise your hand and keep asking for that help and keep doing it until you've found a place like the Road Home where you're getting everything you feel you need to move forward," Peter said. 

Rush experts are able to deliver this specialized care because of donor support. 

To learn more about donating or participating in the program, follow this link.