(Daily Mail)
Richard Pendlebury 4 February 2019 05:04
Teresa Cole has two strong but very different memories of her soldier husband Jonny being treated in hospital.
The first was as a patient in the military unit at Selly Oak, Birmingham, in the summer of 2009. He had been airlifted to the UK from his base in Sangin, Afghanistan, after being wounded in a Taliban rocket attack.
‘Prince Charles suddenly appeared on the ward,’ recalls Teresa. ‘He shook Jonny’s hand and said, “Bloody good job”.’
In tears now, she remembers another incident in another hospital, a couple of years later. Jonny was shouting at staff as they tried to treat him for an attempted fatal overdose.
‘He was in a private room and they wanted to give him something to make him sick,’ she says. ‘I could hear him yelling, “I want to die. Let me die”. I held his hand and tears were running down his face. He said, “I’m so sorry Teresa, but please let me die. You have to let me go”.’
Tortured, broken, Jonny Cole; a father of two and veteran of the Army’s hardest fighting in the bloodiest summer of the Afghan war.
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