[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 30 (Thursday, March 17, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: March 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
CARING FOR THE VETERANS OF THE PERSIAN GULF WAR
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield in the
Persian Gulf ended over 3 years ago, but many of the military men and
women who served in that conflict are still suffering from the
consequences of their service.
One of the diseases that military doctors have successfully diagnosed
in a small number of Persian Gulf veterans is a parasitic disease
called leishmaniasis. This disease can be contracted through the bites
of sand flies found in the desert of southwest Asia, and attacks the
immune and nervous systems of its victims. In the January 31 edition of
Army Times newspaper, author George Wilson had a column about the
courageous struggle of Army Captain Marcus Nerone, who is battling
leishmaniasis with the help of Army doctors at Walter Reed hospital. I
ask unanimous consent that George Wilson's article be included in the
Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
Unfortunately, leishmaniasis is not the only ailment affecting many
of the men and women who served in the Persian Gulf conflict. Within a
year after the end of the war, some veterans began suffering from a
mystery illness, the symptoms of which include joint pain, fatigue,
headaches, decreased short term memory, rashes, painful burning
muscles, and sleep disorders. While individually these symptoms are
common to many illnesses, so far doctors have been unable to identify
the cause of what has been termed Persian Gulf syndrome.
Mr. President, we must do everything possible to properly diagnose
and treat the Persian Gulf syndrome. We must not let what George Wilson
calls ``bureaucratic insensitivity'' get in the way of providing the
medical care that the veterans of the Persian Gulf conflict need and
deserve.
The Force Requirements and Personnel Subcommittee of the Armed
Services Committee under the capable leadership of its chairman Senator
Shelby has been very aggressive in investigating the possible causes of
the Persian Gulf syndrome and in insuring that the Defense Department
medical establishment gives this problem the highest priority. In the
course of his investigation, Senator Shelby has traveled to Europe and
to the Middle East to meet with our coalition allies to look at their
experience in diagnosing and treating the medical problems of their
veterans, and to enlist their help in combating this illusive disease.
Mr. President, I want to assure the Members of the Senate--and the
men and women who served in the Persian Gulf and their families--that
the Armed Services Committee remains totally committed to insuring that
the medical needs of all of those who served in the Persian Gulf
conflict are met.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Army Times, Jan. 31, 1994]
Curing What Ails Him and Other Gulf War Vets
(By George C. Wilson)
High in the reaches of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a
brave and caring soldier is fighting for his life against an
enemy that may have infiltrated the bodies of thousands of
other veterans of Operation Desert Storm without their
knowing it.
Army Capt. Marcus Nerone, a strapping 35-year-old who
started his career in 1981 as a private first class and
believes there is no more noble title than soldier, is
infested with tiny parasites that were injected into his body
when a sand fly on the Saudi Arabian desert bit him.
Nobody knows much about this parasitic disease called
leishmaniasis. Doctors do know that anybody can get it if
bitten by the sand flies found in Saudi Arabia, and that the
poison ejected by the parasites can kill you by destroying
your immune and nervous systems.
What doctors do not know is how many Desert Storm veterans
have the disease, how to quickly detect the disease--which
can take years to reveal itself--or how to kill the parasites
and cure their victims.
Nerone fears that many service men and women who served in
the Persian Gulf are battling against some of the same
symptoms he had--inexplicable fatigue, stomach cramps,
diarrhea, night sweats, sleeplessness, sores, numbness--
without realizing the cause is progressive poisoning by tiny
parasites.
He apparently got bitten by a fly while serving in the
Saudi desert west of Jabal as an intelligence officer with
the 197th Infantry Brigade out of Forth Benning, GA. The
brigade, like so many other outfits, slept in foxholes and
tents where they were constantly exposed to flies and
rodents. Nerone does not remember getting bitten but said it
could have happened almost any time or anywhere while he was
in Saudi Arabia.
Back at Benning after the war, Nerone tried to ignore the
fatigue and other symptoms and make good on his new job as
commander of the headquarters infantry company at the base.
But leishmaniasis--undetected by the hospital at Benning
despite dozens of tests for cancer and other ailments--
eventually overwhelmed him. Dr. William Yost at Benning
consulted with Dr. Alan J. Magill, an infectious disease
specialist at Walter Reed. Magill discovered the
leishmaniasis after Nerone was admitted to Walter Reed.
When an Army friend urged me to join him in visiting Nerone
at the hospital, I expected to see a sick, dispirited man
lying in bed with tubes sticking out all over. Instead, I
found a vigorous, 6-foot-4 soldier with a booming voice and
laugh who considered himself a lucky man with an important
mission--even though he knew full well that leishmaniasis
might kill him.
```How can you say you're lucky?' people ask me. Well, I'm
getting great care. But for every guy like me, there could be
hundreds out there--many no longer in the Army--just out
there with no support. Sure, I want to get better. But if
there's something I can do to help someone else, I'll do
it.''
Nerone has volunteered himself as a guinea pig to such an
extent that the other day he asked a nurse, ``When are they
going to put the wheel in my room?'' He has donated blood to
the National Institutes of Health for study; consented to
painful bone marrow extractions and, most risky, authorized
the intravenous feeding of experimental chemicals into his
veins for seven hours at a time.
Doctors believe he is the first person to be given the
powerful toxin, amphotericin B, for leishmaniasis. The idea
is to outpoison the parasites, killing them but not Nerone.
The chemical leaves the patient feeling so terrible that the
nickname for it is ampho-terrible.
``I already know of one NCO with the disease who is sitting
home waiting to see if this works,'' said Nerone of the
chemotherapy experiment. The empathetic captain--son of
retired infantry Col. Si Nerone--said the Walter Reed
environment has given him a new appreciation for life and
made it impossible to feel sorry for himself.
``The other day I was downstairs getting an illegal cup of
coffee when a woman with no legs wheeled in. It made me ask
of myself, `What are you complaining about?'''
Nerone said he has learned from his stay at Walter Reed how
precious but transitory life is and that the military family
is real, as evidenced by all the support he has received
inside and outside the hospital.
As Nerone continued with his upbeat account of his struggle
against an enemy he cannot see, I thought of all the Vietnam
War veterans who had showed me their rashes and described
other ailments they attributed to being exposed to Agent
Orange. The vets told me how angry and dispirited they felt
when Department of Veterans Affairs officials and doctors
dismissed their complaints and accused them of being
malingerers.
I wondered while at Nerone's bedside, and wonder still,
whether military and political leaders will be as insensitive
toward Persian Gulf diseases like leishmaniasis as they were
toward Agent Orange. We do not need another long,
disgraceful, hurtful bureaucratic tap dance like we had on
Agent Orange.
I did not have to ask the Persian Gulf vet on the bed if he
shared my fears about bureaucratic insensitivity, perhaps
getting him in trouble with superiors since he is still on
active duty. What Nerone is doing speaks louder than any
words to his concern for other casualties of Desert Storm and
to his commitment to help get them well. The bureaucrats, and
the rest of us, can learn something from Capt. Marcus Nerone.
____________________