I certainly agree with much that has been written, there are a few comments that I wish to make on some of the various posts and I am incorporating these in one post, rather than make individual answers. PTSD is the psychopathological result of extraordinary stress outside usual human experience. Andy, I cannot agree with this in regard to PTSD as PTSD has been well documented following only a single horrifying experience. Obviously, however, prolonged stress can have more deleterious effect than shorter experiences, usually with the development of long term anxiety disorders.
Alcohol problems are very common.
She is very right, as Dick Smith has also pointed out. I have been in contact with Dr Henning Allmers, a German doctor who recently had an article published in the English medical journal, the Lancet, making the point that MvR was unfit to fly after receiving such a severe head wound with its associated stress. I could email this to anybody who wishes a copy. It is too long to send to the list directly. Courage is certainly not an issue.