Ollie Green Story and Case Study: Background

Ollie Green’s Story and Case Study: A Focus on Stage 4 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Let’s meet Ollie Green…

Ollie Green is a 68-year-old patient with newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer. He was drafted into the Army after graduating from high school and served in Vietnam. He believes that he was exposed to Agent Orange and blames his cancer diagnosis on this, although he is a current smoker (2 Packs per day) and has a nearly 100 pack year history. He is being evaluated for treatment at a community cancer center. His lung cancer is metastatic to his liver, bones, and adrenal glands and there is a direct extension of cancer into the chest wall.

He has used the VA for some services but is angry and does not trust the government. In 1992 he did receive service connected disability status for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after a lengthy evaluation and appeal process. He sees a counselor, who is also a Veteran, for PTSD in the Mental Health Clinic at the Veteran Affairs (VA) Hospital on a regular basis. He has been married and divorced 4 times and is separated from his current wife. She is planning to move back in with Ollie to help him with this illness. He has three adult children from previous marriages and has been in contact with two of them who live in town.

Ollie is retired from working as a trucker/mechanic. He receives Social Security and a VA disability check every month. He has a high school education. He currently lives in his own home. While his home needs some repairs and modifications, he will live there with progressing illness. He is not up-to-date on all his utility bills. In addition to tobacco, Ollie does drink alcohol daily. He has had difficulty with substance abuse disorder in the past and in retrospect may have drank to self-medicate for his PTSD. Now he has 2-3 drinks a day and frequently spends the evening at the local Veterans for Foreign Wars (VFW) station with several buddies. He also used marijuana in the 60-70’s but not recently and no other recreational drugs.

Ollie was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. However, after returning from Vietnam he said “It is hard to believe in a God that would allow some of the things” he has witnessed and has not been routinely engaged with a faith community. Ollie marveled at the beauty of nature when he was a child and young man before going to war. He is not normally self-reflective, but since his diagnosis, he has often thought about his earlier sense of wonder in the world. He is pondering about the meaning of his diagnosis and how to reconcile that with his questioning beliefs about spirituality. His mother is deeply troubled by his estrangement from the church. His current wife is an evangelical Christian and hopes that he will “accept Jesus” someday and be “born again.”

Case Study Participants

Ollie Green is a 68-year-old Vietnam Veteran who has struggled since returning from service in Vietnam. He has been on disability since age 50 due to PTSD and other complications. Recently he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. _

Julie Tribble is a Chaplain on the Palliative Care Team. She sees patients both in the hospital and in the outpatient Palliative Care Clinic.

Rhonda Phillips is a nurse who works with the outpatient and home-based Palliative Care Program.