Unfortunately, I am all too aware of your husband's situation. My Dad was a Sgt. with the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam, and we lost him to Agent Orange (cancer) in 2003. I was dignosed even before he was, but he had lung cancer from breathing it in, and it spread through his entire body before he was even diagnosed. By the time they found it, it was too late, and he only lived 6 weeks after his diagnosis. My entire life has become consumed with trying to help people like your husband so that another daughter doesn't have to go through the agony of losing her Dad this way. The first thing your husband needs to do is make sure the doctors who are treating him are aware that he is a Veteran and may have been exposed. Make sure they document this claim somewhere in his charts. (I would insist on watching the doctor add this to his notes if I were you.) You also want to gather his service records and contact the local VA. They will be able to determine if he was in an area where there was a high concentration of AO use. My Dad was stationed along to Mekong Delta, so to be quite candid, he never stood a chance. They used most of it trying to clear that entire area along the Delta. To make things worse, when the barrels that contained the AO were empty, they gave them to the bases to be used as makeshift latrines, grills, wash basins...you name it. I will tell you this will be quite a fight, so you may also want to contact a local American Legion or VVA to see if they have any liasons who help Vets file claims. As a child, I'm in a fight of my own because ET and similar cancers were at one point on the list of known illnesses linked to exposure. For some reason, and to my dismay, it was removed just 3 months prior to my diagnosis, otherwise they'd be resposible for covering my medical expenses, which are quickly draining my life savings. The VA will most likely want to review his records and give their own exams to document his illnesses in the AO registry. Whatever you do, DO NOT GIVE UP!!! My Dad's claim was approved the day before he passed, and had it been a day later, my Mom would have received NO ASSISTANCE from the govt. and would have lost everything on top of losing the love of her life. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. I'm marking this post to notify me of any replies so I will get back to you. Good luck, and please tell your husband that there is a military brat in Pa. that is very grateful for his service!
Allison
On 4/29/2008 frankaw wrote:
This has been going
on for some time time and now he is reading that this could be linked
to Agent Orange - he served in Vietnam two different times. Have
you heard anyting of this. No one else in the family has this -
don't know where it came from.