Another member of the team who treated Lionel Desmond’s PTSD while he was still in the military testified at the sixth day of the Desmond Fatality Inquiry in Port Hawkesbury Wednesday.
Wendy Rogers took the stand virtually; the psychologist was Desmond’s first individual therapist after his PTSD diagnosis.
Rogers said she recalled her first session with Desmond.
“He had a really interesting metaphor to describe how he had changed from before his tour and after,” she said. “I remember him saying, ‘I used to be like Tigger and now I’m Eeyore.'”
She spent most of the day detailing Desmond’s therapy with her.
Rogers said she wasn’t surprised the things he saw affected him so badly and told the Inquiry she remembers the worst incident he shared.
“He came across the body of an enemy soldier, it was really horrific, the torso was open, and intestines were coming out, and there were flies and terrible smells,” she said. “That was one of the things that haunted him.”
She said, despite that, Desmond responded well, and finished therapy for his P-T-S-D symptoms.
Rogers said his symptoms came back after a racial incident at work later, and he was ultimately medically discharged.
Lionel Desmond killed his wife, mother, daughter, and then himself in their Upper Big Tracadie, Guysborough Co. home in 2017.
