Agency: Lejeune water contaminated in 1953

Source:  Marine Corps Times
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/01/ap-lejeune-toxic-water-1953-011813/

Agency: Lejeune water contaminated in 1953

By Allen Breed and Martha Waggoner - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 18, 2013 15:47:55 EST

RALEIGH, N.C. — Many more Marines and their relatives could be eligible for compensation for illnesses now that a federal agency determined that the water at North Carolina's Camp Lejeune was contaminated four years earlier than previously thought.

In a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said computer modeling shows that drinking water in the residential Hadnot Point area was unsafe for human consumption as far back as 1953. President Barack Obama signed a law last year granting health care and screening to Marines and their dependents on the base between 1957 and 1987.

"This is yet another piece of the puzzle that's coming together and slowly exposing the extent of the contamination at Camp Lejeune — and the Marine Corps' culpability and negligence," said Mike Partain, a Marine's son who was born at the southeast North Carolina base and who says he is one of at least 82 men diagnosed with breast cancer. "This is four years overdue."

The Marines were slow to react after groundwater sampling first showed contamination on the base in the early 1980s. Some drinking water wells were closed in 1984 and 1985, after further testing confirmed contamination from leaking fuel tanks and an off-base dry cleaner.

Health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water. It's not clear how many Marines and family members will be affected by the expansion of the time line.

Partain estimates thousands because the Hadnot Point water system supplied the barracks where the majority of the Marines lived, as well as the Naval Hospital, unmarried officer barracks and some family housing areas. "It is by far the largest exposed population on the base," Partain said.

In a letter to Gen. Allison Hickey, VA undersecretary for benefits, the head of the toxic substance registry noted that a preliminary water modeling report showed that the period covered under the 2012 legislation didn't go back far enough, and that volatile organic compounds exceeded maximum contaminant levels at Hadnot Point as early as August 1953.

"I hope this information is useful as the Department of Veterans Affairs evaluates claims from veterans who served at USMC Camp Lejeune prior to the release of our full water modeling report in the spring," agency Director Christopher J. Portier wrote in the letter, dated Wednesday.

The letter was first released publicly during a meeting Thursday of the agency's community assistance panel at the disease registry headquarters in Atlanta. Former Marines and family members angrily questioned officials about why these studies have taken so long to complete.

During the meeting Thursday, a VA representative said that the approval rate for claims related to the water contamination has been about 25 percent so far. As of September, the VA had granted 17 breast cancer claims and denied 13 others; not all were males.

Marine Corps Capt. Kendra Motz said she got the disease registry letter Thursday and didn't have immediate comment. A VA spokesman said that agency was looking into the letter.

Documents show that underground storage tanks at Hadnot Point may have leaked more than 1 million gallons of fuel, a much bigger concern than the off-base dry cleaners, said Partain.

"This exposure had nothing to do with ABC cleaners and was the sole responsibility of the USMC," Partain said in an email.

Former Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger singled out the case of a Florida Marine who is dying of a rare case of male breast cancer, and whose claim the VA recently denied.

"We've got veterans out there with life-ending diseases," said Ensminger, who blames the contamination for the leukemia that killed his 9-year-old daughter, Janey, in 1985. "These people are terminal, and they need this information."

That veteran, Tom Gervasi, 76, had his left breast removed in 2003. His service at Camp Lejeune ended six months before the cutoff date.

The VA has denied his cancer claim twice. He learned of the most recent rejection on Wednesday in a call from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio's office.

Gervasi's doctors have given him at most three years to live. He would like his wife, Elaine, to have VA benefits when he is gone.

"Hopefully, this will work in my favor," Gervasi said in a telephone interview Friday from his home in Sarasota. "I don't know. It's sort of like fighting city hall, so to speak. When you're fighting the federal government, you're not always going to win. Very seldom you're going to win."

"It is my hope that VA will act quickly to amend their policy and review relevant disability claims that have been denied," U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said in a statement. "These men and women have been suffering through no fault of their own and we owe them the care they need without delay."

Ensminger told the group that a fellow Marine had succumbed the day before to kidney cancer, one of the diseases linked to the Lejeune contamination.

"I know you all deal with facts and figures; I deal with the personal aspect of this," he said. "You get to know these people. You cry with them, and every one of them that dies, you die a little bit each time with them. And it's just not fun."

VA Again Blocks Gulf War Research Committee Meeting

(91outcomes.com) - The February 4-5, 2013 meeting of the Congressionally chartered Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC) will not take place in Washington, DC as scheduled due to VA bureaucracy bungling the travel approval -- again.

The RAC’s February 2013 meeting was a meeting rescheduled from early December 2012, postponed due to VA’s inability to meet its own internal new VA travel requirements. 

VA has an extensive history of ignoring ill Gulf War veterans, RAC recommendations, and federal laws related to Gulf War veterans. 

Gulf War veterans were victorious in seeing the requirement for the public committee included in landmark 1998 Gulf War legislation.  However, the victory was only short lived as the January 1, 1999 statutory deadline to form the RAC came and went without VA implementation. 

Finally, more than three years late, VA Secretary Tony Principi appointed the first RAC members in 2002, including expert scientists and Gulf War veteran leaders.   The RAC held its first meeting in April of that year – fully public as has been the Committee’s tradition.

The RAC issued landmark reports in 2004 and 2008.  Yet, few of the RAC’s recommendations have ever been implemented by VA. 

In 2012, after an exhaustive, year-long, consensus-based process involving dozens of prominent Gulf War Illness researchers from inside and outside the VA, the RAC and the VA’s National Research Advisory Council (NRAC) completed a Gulf War Illness Research Strategic Plan, only to later see the report unilaterally whitewashed by VA, including removal of all mention of Gulf War Illness, including from the report’s title. 

An entire section of the strategic plan was dedicated to the development of an expanded case definition for Gulf War Illness, primarily of use by medical researchers.  However, even this standard, non-controversial development was ignored by VA when it was discovered by a watchful Gulf War veteran that VA was pursuing a sole-source contract with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to perform a literature review to develop a new case definition – without any public announcement, discussion, or input and in complete contravention to the RAC-NRAC Strategic Plan. 

Following the RAC’s June 2012 meeting, the Committee issued a report highlighting many new and highly troubling VA failures with regards to Gulf War veterans.  The Committee, in approving its June 19, 2012 report, had a unanimous “No Confidence” finding with regards to VA’s handling of Gulf War Illness research.  Among the many findings is VA’s ongoing failure to follow a 2008 law directing VA to contract with the Institute of Medicine to determine the prevalence of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Gulf War and later veterans. 

Consistent with past performance, VA has yet to implement the recommendations called for in the RAC's June 19^th report. 

And, the RAC has not been allowed by VA to meet since then.  

Despite some early signs of progress under Secretary Eric Shinseki, VA is clearly and yet again not serious about making good with disabled and suffering Gulf War veterans.  

In more than two decades since the 1991 Gulf War, VA has yet to implement a single proven effective treatment for Gulf War Illness.  

The next regular public RAC meeting remains scheduled for June 18-19, 2013, in Boston.   That is, of course, if VA can reorient itself to legitimacy, and refrain from further impeding the RAC continuing to fulfill its charter.  

The RAC website notes that it will hold a teleconference on February 4, expected to discuss committee matters.   

-Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com

Senate Hearing on Haley's Gulf War Plume Research ?

Source:  Dallas Morning News
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/01/former-texas-senator-reaches-across-the-aisle.html/

Former Texas senator reaches across the aisle

 51 20

 

By Ed Timms
etimms@dallasnews.com
2:56 pm on January 17, 2013 | Permalink

Bernie Sanders

Former Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has reached across the political aisle about as far as she can, praising Bernie Sanders, the only socialist in the U.S. Senate, for his support of veterans who returned from the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War with mysterious ailments.

Hutchison made the comments at a tribute honoring her contributions to The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, a nonprofit organization that works to further the state’s position as a “national research leader.” Hutchison is a co-founder and the honorary chair of the academy. The private event was held at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science Wednesday night.

Hutchison also lauded research by University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas epidemiologist Robert Haley, which determined that symptoms experienced by Gulf War veterans were caused by physical ailments and not stress. Haley endured considerable pushback from many in the medical community and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Kay Bailey Hutchison

Hutchison was an early and outspoken supporter of Haley’s work. Hutchison also praised Sanders for his support of ailing Gulf War veterans, which dated back to his tenure as a U.S. representative.

Sanders now serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. And Haley is the holder of the U.S. Armed Forces Veterans Distinguished Chair for Medical Research, Honoring America’s Gulf War Veterans at UT-Southwestern.

Hutchison said that Sanders wants Haley to testify about some recent findings, which have identified a plume containing toxic chemicals and nerve agents from bombed storage facilities in the Baghdad area as the apparent source of the veterans’ ailments.

IOM "Treatments" Committee Phone Briefing

The earliest presentations of this panel were highly flawed, inappropriately focusing on a long discredited theory of stress-as-cause for Gulf War veterans' physical Gulf War Illness symptoms. Not surprisingly, they were met with opposition from actual Gulf War Illness researchers and affected GWI patients.  Therefore, there is little confidence that the findings of this panel will be of legitimate value. 

-A.H.

**************************

Gulf War and Health, Volume 9: Treatment for Chronic Multisymptom Illness

Phone Briefing

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

1:00 PM EST

The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies is releasing the report Gulf War and Health, Volume 9: Treatment for Chronic Multisymptom Illness on Wednesday, January 23, 2013. The report will be available after 11:00 AM EST and can be accessed from the IOM website.

A phone briefing on the report will be held at 1:00 PM EST on January 23. If you are interested in participating, please contact Jonathan Schmelzer at jschmelzer@nas.edu or202-334-3759 to request the dial-in number and passcode.

Gulf War and Health, Volume 9: Treatment for Chronic Multisymptom Illness evaluates scientific and medical information regarding treatments for chronic multisymptom illness among Gulf War veterans and provides recommendations on how to best manage the health of veterans who have this condition. The report also provides recommendations on how to disseminate information on chronic multisymptom illness throughout the VA health-care system and on future research needs to resolve areas of continuing scientific uncertainty.  

Please forward this information to others who may be interested in participating in the briefing.

'This generation's Agent Orange:' New registry to tally, track burn pit illnesses among vets

SOURCE:  NBC News

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/10/16449918-this-generations-agent-orange-new-registry-to-tally-track-burn-pit-illnesses-among-vets?lite

'This generation's Agent Orange:' New registry to tally, track burn pit illnesses among vets By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor January 11, 2013, 5:49 pm

NBCNews.com

Mark Rankin / U.S. Army file A bulldozer dumps a load of trash into a burn pit just 300 yards from the runway at Bagram Airfield. A law signed by President Barack Obama will create a registry of U.S. service members who may have been sickened or killed by burn pits used throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.

An American flag dangles from the Torres home, the sign of a long battle won: a new law — signed Thursday by President Barack Obama — creating a registry of U.S. service members perhaps sickened or killed by burn pits used throughout Iraq and Afghanistan to destroy waste ranging from batteries to body parts.

But amid occasional smiles over the first step to formally identify the toxic effects of what’s called “this generation’s Agent Orange,” there were tears, too, in that house near Corpus Christi, Texas. Resident Le RoyTorres, 40, a former Army captain, is one of the ill veterans who will land on that list.

“It was a big victory. It justifies the need for health care. And now we know we’re not alone,” said Rosie Lopez-Torres, Le Roy’s wife, who said she “knocked on a lot of doors” in Congressional hallways to push the bill, which passed Dec. 30. The law requires the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to assemble the registry and report back to Congress. 

“But because of (our) finances, because my husband can’t work, today was also one of the toughest days for us,” Lopez-Torres said Wednesday. “Today, he was in tears. I’m not going to sugar coat that. How do I convince this once-strong, 6-foot-tall man who never missed a day of work: ‘You are the same man.’ But as the head of the household, he said: ‘You don’t understand what this has done to me.’ So it’s hard. But we still hang that flag on our porch. This has nothing to do with the military. This has to do with the contractors.”

After a lung biopsy, Le Roy Torres was diagnosed in 2010 with constrictive bronchiolitis, an irreversible disease that squeezes off airways. In 2007 and 2008, he was stationed in Balad, Iraq — home to what may have been largest military burn pit — the size of 10 football fields. Torres, for a time, performed his daily calisthenics near the dark plumes emitted by the smoldering crater.

Forced by breathing problems to later retire from his post-Army job as a highway patrolman, Torres is one of thousands of veterans who have filed more than 50 lawsuits against defense contractors hired to handle waste management in the war zones. The Motley Rice law firm is representing Torres and other veterans and their survivors in one of those class-action suits.

Attorneys allege the contractors — including KBR, Inc. and its former parent company, Halliburton — mismanaged the burns and exposed American troops to poison fumes. Last July, KBR’s lawyers argued that 55 such cases should be dismissed, in part because employees from the Houston-based company served “shoulder-to-shoulder” with service members, which should grant KBR the same immunity given to government entities and personnel, such as soldiers.

Service members, however, have complained for a decade that burn pits scattered across Iraq and Afghanistan were making them sick with cancers and other diseases, and were killing some young troops. In 2007, Army and Air Force health inspectors went to Balad and measured airborne, cancer-causing dioxins at 51 times the “acceptable levels.” They determined the cancer risk for people serving at the base for more than one year was eight times higher than normal. In 2008, the Military Times reported that single burn pit might have exposed tens of thousands of troops to dioxins and toxins such as arsenic.

What has been the health toll on U.S. troops? That’s what the new registry is designed to calculate, said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a group representing more than 200,000 former service members.

“This is something we’ve been fighting for, for years. It will be one database where doctors can go and look at the common symptoms. It also will help verify the problem quicker so vets can get the care they need,” said Rieckhoff, who served as a first lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in Iraq during 2003 and 2004. He has experienced respiratory problems, although he cannot pinpoint the cause. “I don’t know too many people who weren’t exposed to a burn pit sometime during their deployment. They were constant.”

The smoking landfills typically contained damaged Humvees, unexploded ordnance, gas cans, mattresses, rocket pods, plastics, medical waste and amputated body parts, and they often were ignited by jet fuel.

The act does not mandate new VA benefits for veterans who chronically inhaled the vapors, Rieckhoff said. But the registry is expected to help private and government doctors document health conditions potentially related to burn pits, and perhaps hasten many diagnoses.

“It will help us get to the bottom of what’s causing so many vets to be sick,” he added. “We don’t know what toxic exposure is going to be (shown). It could be our generation’s Agent Orange (the defoliant used in Vietnam, later shown to be carcinogenic). But it’s important that you start with data. Data will be a critical part of identifying the problem and then creating good treatment. I’m glad we didn’t have to wait decades like the Vietnam veterans did around Agent Orange.”

Le Roy Torres, for example, has been given a 10 percent disability rating by the VA, said his wife, who calls that ruling “a joke” because “he served for 22 years, lost his childhood dreams, his career, just turned 40 and is unable to work because of his lung disease which also has affected his heart.” The Torres family is fighting the VA for a higher disability rating and, thus, higher compensation for his service-related symptoms. 

Before the lawsuits and the law, a handful of military families launched their own, online registries for service members, veterans and their survivors so they could report their symptoms and mark how closely they had served to one or several of the burn pits. 

As Le Roy Torres struggled harder to breathe, he and his wife launched BurnPits360.org. The site lists 11 service members who descended from full health to terminal cancer after serving near a burn pit. 

That roll includes Air Force Sgt. Jessica Sweet, who died of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2009 at age 30. She served in Afghanistan. Also listed is Army Staff Sgt. Steven Ochs, who died from AML in 2008 at age 32. He served in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of the registry's primary goals is to determine if there are tangible links between the deaths of service members like Sweet and Ochs and their exposure to the burn pits.

“How many have been affected? Every week I get an email from someone who has passed,” Rosie Lopez-Torres said. “We started our registry because we weren’t going to wait on the Department of Defense and VA. Our list of people who have self reported their data — whether it’s the loved one of a fallen hero who lost the battle with toxic exposure, or someone who is fighting the battle — is well over 1,000 people. They are from all over the country.

“The hardest thing for us is trying to figure out the finances day to day, and hearing (from the government) ‘just wait’ on your retirement check,” she added. “He’s hearing, ‘wait, wait, wait’ but he’s having to provide for his family. And he’s looking at his life and saying: “What am I going to do now?’”

VA Relaunches Biorepository For Research On Gulf War Veterans’ Illness

SOURCE:  The Quincy Sun
http://thequincysun.com/2013/01/11/va-launches-biorepository-for-research-on-gulf-war-veterans-illness/

VA Launches Biorepository For Research On Gulf War Veterans’ Illness

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched the Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Biorepository (GWVIB) to support research on the causes, progression, and treatment of disorders affecting Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War.  This is the first time that any study has tried to start a national biorepository for Gulf War Veterans. The study will find out how to best set up a Gulf War Veterans Biorepository and to see if there are enough Veterans who will volunteer to participate.

Biorepositories, also called bio-banks, collect and store human fluid and tissue samples. The GWVIB plans to follow the health of enrolled participants over their lifetimes through mailed surveys, telephone calls, and electronic health records.  Participants in the GWVIB have generously volunteered to donate their brain and other body tissue after their death. The donated tissue, along with the health information collected from Veterans during their lifetime, will provide crucial information for use in research on illnesses affecting Veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War.

The launch of the GWVIB has been long awaited by Gulf War Veterans.  About 697,000 men and women served in the first Gulf War, and since then nearly 250,000 have experienced chronic, medically unexplained illnesses, known collectively as Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses.  Symptoms include fatigue, headaches, joint pain, as well as disordered respiratory, digestive, and cognitive function.  The cause of these illnesses is unknown, and effective treatments remain elusive.

“Hundreds of thousands of ill Veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War depend on cutting-edge biomedical research to better understand and treat these illnesses, and providing crucial tissue and health information to researchers will be a vital resource for this research”, noted the project’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Neil Kowall, M.D.

All Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War era living in the United States, regardless of whether they served in the Gulf region or are experiencing symptoms are eligible to participate. Additional information about this study can be found at (http://www.research.va.gov/programs/tissue_banking/gwvib/) or by calling toll-free 855-561-7827.

New Article on Schwarzkopf's Real Legacy -- Gulf War Illness and a VA without treatments

Award winning journalist Jamie Reno has exclusive new reporting on the real legacy of the 1991 Gulf War, following the recent death of its commanding general Norman Schwarzkopf:  Gulf War Illness, a debilitating, chronic multisymptom illness that still afflicts 250,000 of the 697,000 Gulf War troops -- and other U.S. forces -- and for which VA still has no effective treatments to offer.

Some excer Reno's latest article:

.... 

So where was Stormin’ Norman during these 20 years of pain and suffering by his troops that had done everything he asked of them? Was he at the forefront in the effort to get to the real cause of this illness? 

"No," Cook says flatly. "For the most part, he sat on the sideline and, when given a chance to speak out and demand something be done, he remained silent," Cook says. "These were the same men and women that had made him great, handing him his greatest victory, the crowning achievement to his career. And he did not speak out when he could have had a profound impact and built a bright fire under the bureaucracy. He did nothing."

.... 

However, it would be far more fitting if there was a building somewhere bearing the name General Norman Schwartzkopf Rehabilitation Center for Gulf War Illness. Now that would be a bright, shining legacy to last through the ages, not the somewhat tarnished legacy he has left us." 

....

"So many senior commanders lose sight of what they were taught as Second Lieutenants as they move through the ranks, and that is to always take care of the troops because it is the troops that make you relevant, not the stars on the collar," says Cook. "Without them, you are nothing but a parade ground commander. Yes, somewhere along the way, General Schwarzkopf lost his way."

Read the full story here:  http://therenodispatch.blogspot.com/2013/01/exclusive-army-officers-candid-thoughts.html

***

Jamie Reno, an award-winning correspondent for Newsweekfor 20 years, has also written for The Daily Beast, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated,Rolling Stone, People, Men’s Journal, ESPN, Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, MSNBC,Newsmax, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today. Reno, who’s won more than 95 writing awards, was the lead reporter on a Newsweek series on the 9/11 terrorist attacks that earned him and his colleagues the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, the highest award in magazine journalism.

Gulf War Veterans, non-smokers dying of lung cancer

Source:  WISH-TV, Indianapolis, Ind.
http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/i_team_8/veterans-non-smokers-dying-of-lung-cancer

Veterans, non-smokers dying of lung cancer

Updated: Sunday, 30 Dec 2012, 10:57 PM EST
Published : Sunday, 30 Dec 2012, 10:57 PM EST

• Karen Hensel

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A second Indiana congressman is taking action after an I-Team 8 investigation exposed the government may be knowingly turning its back on thousands of Gulf War veterans with cancer. 

Karen Hensel exposed the investigation that has now prompted troops from here to Afghanistan to be tested for lung cancer.

It was a cancer predicted during the Gulf War by top scientists from several countries. Now 20 years veterans, non smokers, are dying of lung cancer. I-Team 8 went to Washington asking why?

INDIANA MARINE BATTLES

At the center of the battle is Indiana State Trooper and Marine Col. Mark Smith.  He says, "Now it's game on. Now its the fight. That part I can understand." 

Col. Mark Smith is a hardcore Marine. A battalion commander, he led 1,200 Marines into the deepest battles of the Iraq war. This time the fight is not against terrorists in Iraq. The enemy is lung cancer. Smith tells his pulmonologist Dr. Peter Garrett "Hey, a colonel in the Marine Corps can give orders. I can take orders."

He no longer fights alongside Marines. He has a new team. Smith says, "The wings these people wear that nobody sees because they are unbelievable." He is no longer the commander, but rather he is the patient 20 years after the Gulf War.

THE ORIGIN

24-Hour News 8's original I-Team 8 investigation prompted immediate action from Indiana Congressman Marlin Stutzman who is a member of the House Veteran's Affairs Committee. Within days, he sent this letter to the VA and DOD demanding answers on government "response and policies."  Why aren't veterans being notified they are at higher risk of lung cancer and why aren't they being aggressively screened?

When civilian doctors found a blood clot in Smith's leg they immediately ordered a CT scan. While the VA has been urged to offer CT screenings for veterans at high risk for lung cancer, so far the VA has not implemented it, relying solely on the less efficient x-rays.

HOW MANY?

There may be tens of thousands like Mark Smith unaware of the lung cancer battle waging in their chest. In 1991, Mark deployed with the 3/24 Marines to Saudi Arabia. He was stationed near the infamous Kuwaiti oil well fires some scientists likened to a "petroleum Chernobyl". The skies were black during the day. Black gunk would run from their noses. Doctors warned then cancer would appear 20 years later.

Two of Smiths doctors--one now and one then--say it appears his deployment 20 years ago could be the origin.  Dr. Garrett confirms to I-Team 8 "He certainly had exposure."  In 1998 Dr. Robert Daly documents: he spent "substantial time in the military in Saudi Arabia and was exposed to oil fires. Mark's dyspnea (shortness of breath) is somewhat puzzling."

24-Hour News 8's cameras have spent six months documenting how a Marine commander, always prepared, battles cancer. During treatment Smith told 24-Hour News 8, "This is just something I was completely and utterly unprepared for. The Marine Corps steels you."

DAY ONE

Our cameras were there as Smith underwent his first day of treatment. He called it "awesome" and lifted his shirt to show the box that marks the treatment. Day after day he undergoes both radiation and chemo. Long, hard, grueling treatments. 

While undergoing chemotherapy, he shows his Battlebook saying "This is just the Marine Corps way."  But the Marine Battlebook is replaced by Mark's Cancer Battlebook of appointments, notes and reminders. Smith says, "Someone tells you you have cancer, I don't care who you are. Your first thought is I'm dead. That's the stigma that comes with the disease. You have no idea there are the Dr. Garretts and the Dr. Meyers out there doing the things they are doing."

MARK'S NEW TEAM

Before treatment, there are moments of quiet reflection. Once it is time to go back, our microphone comes off. The box on his chest is highlighted as he lies on the machine. Mark may be by himself in the room, but he is never alone. Doctors and staff watch and wait as the barrage of radiation attacks the cancer cells. Smith is emotional as he reveals, "I've walked among giants in the Marine Corps. Guys books will be written about. This 100 pound female doctor stands as tall as any one of them."

He's talking about oncologist Dr. Meyer. Grateful to the doctors, nurses and technicians he thanked each one not as a patient, but as a Marine with a US Marine challenge coin. Semper Fi. Always Faithful.

One Marine, one patient "Always Faithful".

NEW QUESTIONS:

VA RESPONSE

But has the government been faithful to the troops deployed early in the Gulf War?  It took the VA several months to respond to questions from I-Team 8.

We were told "The VA is continuing to systematically study the long term health mortality experience of Gulf War veterans".  While they "found a slight increase in lung cancer" shortly after the 1990-1991 conflict, the response stated "a significantly greater proportion of deployed smoke cigarettes".

Col. Smith never smoked.

SECOND CONGRESSMAN WANTS ANSWERS 

How many others are there?  That's what Indiana Congressman Todd Rokita is also asking after seeing our investigation. In a letter to the VA Secretary he wants a "clear explanation of what action" is being taken and "What preventative measures are being taken".

Consider it took 11 years for the cancers of 911 to finally be documented. Even more were at risk 20 years ago and still no action has been taken.

Until now. 

We heard from many veterans-non smokers-with lung cancer who also served in Desert Storm.

We also heard from those concerned. 24-Hour News 8 is posting the research on CT scans on our website so you can talk with your doctor. Those links can be found under the News tab at Web Link 8 .

Falla and Postural Instability in Fibromyalgia

Source:  ProHealth
http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=17790

Falls and Postural Instability in Fibromyalgia Patients Related to Sleep Quality

(1 votes)

ProHealth.com • December 31, 2012

Rate:   1 2 3 4 5

[Note: Postural stability is the ability of an individual to maintain the position of the body.  It is necessary in order for a person to maintain an upright posture as well as to maintain balance while performing movements.]

Article:

Assessment of the relationship between postural stability and sleep quality in patients with fibromyalgia.
– Source: Clinical Rheumatology, November 21, 2012

By N. Akkaya, et al.

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of postural stability and sleep disorders in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.

Frequency of falls in the last 6 months in 48 fibromyalgia and 32 control subjects were recorded.

Postural stability was assessed by static posturography device (Tetrax, Sunlight Medical Ltd., Israel).

Functional assessment consisted of lower-body strength; one-leg stance test were applied to all subjects.

Fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ), sleep quality numeric rating scale (NRS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were inquired.

• The number of falls in the last 6 months was significantly higher in the fibromyalgia group.
• Mean total value of stability indexes was 201.7±70.9 vs. 162.6±29.6 in fibromyalgia and control subjects (p<0.05)
• NRS and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were significantly higher in fibromyalgia patients.
• It was detected that there were significant relationships between fall risk and NRS scores (r=0.565), and FIQ fatigue subscores (r=0.560) (both p<0.05)

Worse postural performance and fall risk found in the fibromyalgia patients compared to controls were related with the sleep quality in the last 24 h and level of fatigue.

Source: Clinical Rheumatology, November 21, 2012. By N. Akkaya, S. Akkaya, N.S. Atalay, M. Acar, N. Catalbas, F. Sahin. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pamukkale University Medical School, 20210, K1n1kl1, Denizli, Turkey, E-mail:nrakkaya@gmail.com