Saturday, August 6, 2011

Asheville's Susan Reinhardt on one family's battle for help with medical problems they believe stem from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam


“The fact is, I don’t think the doctors know what to do for her,” an exhausted Muse said.
“They have suffered way too much for too many years,” said Muse, of Swannanoa. “My brother (Roger) volunteered for the Army when he was 17, then volunteered to go to Vietnam. There, he was exposed to Agent Orange many times, and his barracks were directly across from where they mixed it and sprayed all around the area to keep weeds down.”

Her aunt believes with all her heart the problems of Rhonda and her younger brother, whose legs are also riddled with swelling and disease, came from Agent Orange sprayed near their father, Roger Lunsford, in Vietnam.

“I’ve never heard of a problem like theirs,” he said of the family’s swelling and rupturing legs. He suggested they go to www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange for additional help.

“I’m praying you will (find) people to contact to get her some help. No one should have to live like this. The child has had a very hard life with way too much suffering. Please help me by attempting to save my niece.

“We’ve done everything we know to do,” she said. “There’s got to be, somewhere in this world, a doctor who would know what to do to help them. Everybody says there’s not. We’ve done everything we know to do.”

The Source

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