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Monday, Aug. 3, 1998
Fighting Illness
Medical condition affects CCAD workers who were exposed to a host of chemicals
By GUY H. LAWRENCE
Staff WriterGerald Sohn answered his country's call to duty as a 44-year-old who stood 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighed in at close to 200 pounds and could run 4 miles two or three times a week.
But within months of returning from the Gulf War in 1991, he started having health problems, including severe pains, difficulty sleeping and remembering things and weight loss that put him at 160 pounds.
In early 1994 he bottomed out, he said.
``You can't get up and you can't walk and you can't think. You get up to work on Sunday and stay home on Monday,'' Cohn said. ``I just didn't want to put up with it anymore.''
Sohn, although a Navy Reservist, wasn't called up to be a sailor.
The industrial engineering technician at the Corpus Christi Army Depot was sent to build a mess hall in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to serve about 800 other Defense Department employees and military personnel.
He served alongside the ground troops, and like 50,000 others who have registered with the Defense Department, he believes he has developed an illness related to the Gulf War. Like 200 of them, he has been treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., home of the Gulf War Health Center's Specialized Care Program.
A local Veterans Affairs representative estimates that as many as 100 men and women in the area have reported some sort of illness they believe is related to the Gulf War. That number is expected to grow as more soldiers who fought in the Persian Gulf War retire from the military and file for benefits for service-related ailments, said Adan Alaniz, a local VA benefits counselor.
Alaniz advises everyone who served in the Gulf War to undergo a medical exam. To schedule an exam, veterans should call the VA.
``A lot of them may have chronic fatigue, chemical hypersensitivity and post-traumatic stress and not know why,'' Alaniz said.
In the years following the Gulf War, Pentagon officials denied any connection between service in the Persian Gulf and illnesses suffered by many who served there. But researchers are examining whether exposure to a number of toxic substances, ranging from low levels of chemical warfare agents to inoculations to a specific kind of ammunition, could be behind many of the maladies.
``Depending on where you were, they were exposed to a variety of things. It is very difficult to look at each soldier. It is an epidemiological nightmare,'' said Marguerite Knox, clinical professor at the University of South Carolina's College of Nursing, who served on a presidential advisory panel that looked into the Gulf War illnesses from August 1995 to October 1997.
Sohn was among 56 Defense Department workers from the Corpus Christi Army Depot to serve in Saudi Arabia during the war.
Another CCAD worker, Juri Koern, said that he came away not only with the Superior Civilian Service award but also with a string of maladies he connects to exposure to a ``killer cocktail'' of chemicals in Saudi Arabia.
The list of Koern's ailments include chronic fatigue, memory loss, headaches, loss of concentration, aching joints, depression, skin rashes, nervousness, blurred vision, anxiety, chests pains, dizziness, back pain, loss of balance and nausea.
Since returning from Saudi Arabia, Koern, 60, has been treated for cancer, suffered a stroke, suffered from sleep apnea and developed colon polyps, a prostate gland infection and emphysema - all of which he blames on his Persian Gulf service.
Koern, a Vietnam veteran, served in Southwest Asia from Dec. 9, 1990, to Dec. 22, 1991, as the chief of real estate for the Army Materiel Command.
During his 13-month tour, Koern said he was exposed to depleted uranium dust, smoke from burning oil fields, pesticides, chemically treated uniforms, an anti-nerve agent and sand fleas. Koern also received three anthrax shots and a botulism shot. To top everything off, 19 Scud missiles exploded in his area, he said.
Koern believes he was exposed to the depleted uranium dust while he inventoried damaged tanks and armored vehicles that were returned from the front lines. A common type of ammunition fired by coalition tanks during the war used an armor-piercing dart made of depleted uranium, a metal nearly 70 percent denser than lead.
``We climbed all over those things and took pictures,'' Koern said. ``Once that thing has been hit with the round, the uranium dust particles stay for 100 years or longer. Those particles don't die.''
Sohn, who served in south Saudi Arabia from Dec. 9, 1990, to Feb. 28, 1991, said he started seeing changes in his health just weeks after returning. The first sign was an unusual rash all over his body.
Later, Sohn was tormented by more illnesses including stomach, back and joint pain, headaches, a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, fatigue, trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating, memory loss and panic attacks.
Sohn said it took a long time for a doctor to take his illnesses seriously.
``I did not get a physical when I came back from the Persian Gulf,'' Sohn said. ``The first doctor didn't touch me until Aug. 4, 1994.''
Koern's problems began before he left the Persian Gulf, he said. In July 1991, he suffered a 105.9-degree fever that put him in the hospital for four days. He recovered and stayed in Saudi Arabia for almost six more months, and thought the nose bleeds, diarrhea and headaches would stop once he returned to the states, he said.
``It didn't go away. It continued,'' Koern said. He describes himself as being as healthy as a horse before going to the Gulf.
``I was still partying every night and enjoying life,'' he said. ``Nothing was stopping me. All that is a wishful memory right now.''
Although Pentagon officials repeatedly denied that soldiers were exposed to nerve gas, in 1996 it was revealed that the U.S. soldiers actually detonated a bunker storing Iraqi chemical weapons. Later reports estimated that thousands of soldiers could have been in an area covered by fumes from the explosion.
Still, the government couldn't say that exposure to the chemical weapon fallout was the sole reason for the illnesses.
No one is certain what low-level exposure can do, Knox said.
The men and women in the Gulf War were exposed to such a variety of chemicals that it was impossible to point to just one cause.
``We concluded in our final report that, singularly, there was no evidence to show that those things were harmful,'' Knox said. ``But when you put all that together, we don't know what the effect is.''
In addition to possible exposure to chemical weapons, soldiers received anthrax vaccine, shots for botulism and many other chemicals that are harmless on their own, she said.
``There really were not definitive conclusions about what made these people ill, other than the fact that stress is a large contributor to any illness,'' Knox said. ``What we did do was to set in line the research that would be done looking at the exposures that we were able to identify .''
Recently, researchers in the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Hospital have studied veterans with depleted uranium shrapnel in their bodies - finding traces of uranium in their semen, abnormal hormones and a decrease in problem-solving ability. The veterans have been able to have healthy children and researchers haven't pinpointed how the depleted uranium is linked to the veterans' health problems.
As many as 400,000 men and women may have been exposed to depleted uranium either during combat, during recovery of damaged weapons or while visiting the battleground, according to a study released by the National Gulf War Resource Center.
Researchers with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas believe symptoms suffered by Persian Gulf War veterans can be treated and are launching clinical trials to test specific drugs.
At Walter Reed in Washington, D.C., Sohn said he found some relief for his condition, but Koern said his health problems are more serious then what the program can treat.
``They are trying and they are helping people that are not as sick as I am,'' Koern said.
Sohn, who returned from a four-day visit at Walter Reed about a week ago, said the care he receives is a new lease on life, even if it isn't the answer he is hoping for. The treatment teaches patients some pain-management techniques to function at work and at home despite the illnesses.
``There is no cure,'' Sohn said. ``They just teach you to live with the pain.''
Traditional medicine could not help soldiers suffering from Gulf War illnesses because the cause of the pain could not be identified, said Lt. Col. Charles Engel, a psychiatrist and epidemiologist who runs the Special Care Program in Washington, D.C.
``These folks, compared to people in the military who were not deployed to Saudi Arabia, are not dying of diseases at higher rates and they are not being hospitalized at higher rates, but it does seem they are having these chronic, smoldering symptoms at higher rates,'' Engel said.
One of the things the doctors in the program, which started in 1995, had to overcome was the patients' suspicions about seeing a military doctor who would discount the illnesses.
``It is quite clear that if you spend any amount of time around these folks, that we are not dealing with fakers,'' Engel said. ``These people are quite ill.''
Staff writer Guy H. Lawrence can be reached at 886-3792 or by e-mail at lawrenceg@scripps.com
Where you can learn more
For information about Gulf War illnesses:
Department of Defense Gulf War hotline, 1-800-796-9699
Department of Veterans Affairs local benefits office, 854-4349Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web