However, sometimes the VA does not recognize presumptive illnesses, which leads them to deny some claims. http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Mtg-Docs/AO-Birth-Defects-Position-Paper.pdf. But the agency also said it does not have the in-house expertise to study birth defects, deferring to academic researchers and other parts of the federal government. Charles Ornstein is a senior reporter for ProPublica covering health care and the pharmaceutical industry. They, like thousands of others, are grappling with a chilling prospect: Could Agent Orange, the herbicide linked to health problems in Vietnam veterans, have also harmed their children? ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot are interested in hearing from veterans and family members for our ongoing investigation into the effects of Agent Orange on veterans and their children. Last week, after repeated recommendations by federal scientific advisory panels, Congress The veterans would all say, You know its probably Agent Orange. Read the story. Cysts: Arm, Brain, Hand, Leg, Shoulder Blade, Thyroid, Arm, Ovaries & Wrists. Some government studies were done, including Michaleks, but they generally dismissed an association. The reports did suggest a possible association between herbicide exposure among vets and spina bifida in their kids. The airplanes returning from short missions would often dump Agent Orange in the river alongside his base, he told her. Mike Ryans mother, the head obstetrician at a Long Island hospital, delivered baby Kerry and knew immediately something was terribly wrong. Please do not send any confidential information to us until such time as an attorney-client relationship has been established. At Berry Law, we have an experienced team of attorneys that will fight to get you the compensation you deserve. At one point in the mid-1980s, the VA also saw the research value of its registry, namely to provide a means of detecting clues or suggestions that specific health problems or unexpected health trends are showing up in this group of veterans, according to a fact sheet prepared at the time. Agent Orange was an herbicide mixture used during the Vietnam War to kill plants and vegetation. Air Force researchers have denied that their findings were manipulated and said they needed the extra time to verify each birth defect against medical records to ensure it was correct. Studies show that Veterans exposed to Agent Orange who had children after the war had a 13.1% chance of having a child with birth defects, whereas it was only about 2.8% before the exposure. We have a contract to take care of them if theyre injured, and if their children are injured because of their exposures, we have a contract to take care of them, too.. It raises questions about whether they want to know the answer or are just hoping the problem will naturally go away as the veterans die off.. If you want to learn more about our No Fee Guarantee, please call us at (877) 777-4021. It wasnt until Maureen Ryan read a magazine article that suggested a link between dioxin and birth defects that it dawned on them that her husbands tour in Vietnam might be connected to Kerrys problems. Come on, give me a break.. The data has some caveats. Perhaps you did not supply enough evidence to make your claim firm. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Theyve held more than 250 town hall meetings across the U.S., urging veterans to share their families stories. makes payments only to those who have spina bifida, in which the spinal cord doesnt develop properly, and the children of a small number of female Vietnam vets with 18 other diseases. If you did not provide the necessary medical documents needed for the VA to review your claim, this is likely why they denied it. List of Reported Birth Defects Associated with Agent Orange, http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/birth-defects/children-women-vietnam-vets.asp, http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Mtg-Docs/AO-Birth-Defects-Position-Paper.pdf, Addiction(other than cigarettes, drugs or alcohol), Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Basaloid Type, Anemia SC (as a small child when I had pneumonia), Arthritis: Inflammatory, of the SI Joint, Rheumatoid, Juvenile, Benign tumor on thyroid/ near total thyroidectomy surgery, Brain (calcification & an enlarged perivascular space), Brain Lesions, Aneurysms, Tumors, Surgery, Calluses on vocal Chords-Faulty flap stomach acid caused, Chiari Malformation (Assoc. It is led by Betty Mekdeci, who first started gathering data on birth defects and environmental exposures in the 1980s after her son was born with health issues, then became fixated on helping the children of Vietnam vets. For now, the VA pays to store the blood, semen and tissue specimens from the former Air Force spray crews in a freezer at a base in Ohio, leaving open the possibility for future studies. The analysis showed that both groups saw a substantial increase in birth defects among their children born after the war, but the rate was higher for those who were exposed. The information you obtain on this website is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. Schwartz said more needs to be done about Agent Orange and its impact on the children of veterans. PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME. The group has been a forceful advocate for compensating veterans for health problems linked to Agent Orange. Blackledge, who fathered a healthy child before the war and two sick ones after, believes the government that exposed troops to Agent Orange should care for those it harmed including their children. Even so, experts said the results should prompt the VA to take the issue seriously. At the first one, in Louisville, Kentucky, the room was filled, Porter said. Appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals, Appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Increase Veterans Affairs Disability Rating, Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU), VA Mental Health: Legal Help for Veterans, Veterans Affairs Compensation for Sleep Apnea, VA Rating for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), 2022 Veterans Affairs Disability Rates Increase. It can be challenging to link a disability to Agent Orange exposure. In 2009, 2012 and 2014, other IOM panels reiterated that recommendation and expanded on it. With this, you do not have to provide direct evidence of exposure to Agent Orange causing your disability. While Bowser has been working to help the children of veterans connect with one another, Mokie Porter has been working to get veterans to share their medical and exposure information with their children in case they dont live long enough to see a connection made. This leaves out many Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and have children with birth defects. If you are a hard working Military Vet, and your doctor says you simply cant work anymore because of your Military Service, you are probably entitled to Veterans Disability benefits. We ran into a wall, she said. with Spina Bifida), Chronic Candida and Other Female Reproductive Organ Infections, Chronic ENT issues resulting in adenoidectomy, tonsillectomy and ear tubes, Chronic Fatigue And Immune Deficiency Syndrome (CFAIDS), Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), Severe, Complete Hysterectomy: Age 25, Age 31, Age 37,Age 36, Congenital Anosmia (Born without the ability to smell). Veterans reported that some of their children had unusual defects missing limbs, extra limbs and other diseases that didnt run in their families. Recent advances in science, especially in the burgeoning field of epigenetics, have shown that chemical exposure can affect multiple generations. Many, like Ryan, returned home, eager to put Vietnam behind them, starting new families or adding to ones they had. The disease developed within a certain time frame after the last day of your service in Vietnam. sprayed millions of gallons of potent weed killers, panel of the prestigious Institute of Medicine, Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance. In a report this year, an IOM panel said the military and the VA should set their sights on forward-looking projects, like tracking which chemicals soldiers are exposed to in real time. After Veterans returned, they noticed that some of their children were born after their exposure had birth defects. The best thing for you to do is not go at it alone. Mike Ryan, now 71, said he hadnt kept up with scientific advancements that potentially confirm what hes spent years arguing that a fathers exposure to toxins can cause health problems in offspring. From 1962 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of potent weed killers, including Agent Orange, over Vietnam to kill dense jungle foliage and eliminate places for the enemy to hide, exposing as many as 2.6 million service members in the process. That, to me, is a signal.. The study was extremely detailed, verifying what veterans said with a host of medical exams and biological specimens, including blood, semen and urine samples. It could even be that your time in the service worsened a pre-service disability, which would qualify as a service-connected disability. While there, Porters daughter befriended the grandson of a Vietnam veteran who also was sick. Watch the videos. Due to the nature of Agent Orange, some things are easier to get recognized by the VA since they presume an in-service injury or a link between exposure and the disability. These individuals deserve an answer, Schwartz said at the forum hosted by ProPublica and The Pilot. I probably wouldnt have had kids, he said, had I known that there would be an impact on them.. Vets from subsequent conflicts have similar concerns that their proximity to burn pits, depleted uranium and other toxins might be affecting their children. A second study compared the rates of birth defects among babies fathered by Vietnam vets to those born to veterans who served elsewhere during the war. Heather Bowser was born in 1972, three years after her father, William Morris, returned from Vietnam. document.getElementById('copyright').appendChild(document.createTextNode(new Date().getFullYear())) PTSD Lawyers | Berry Law Firm. His oldest daughter the one born before he went to fight in Vietnam is fine. The 1992 report looked at the data in a different way. Five years in, Dr. Richard Albanese, a lead investigator, and his team made what they considered an intriguing finding children born to exposed Air Force vets after the war had more defects than children of those who hadnt handled Agent Orange. Im a faithful military man, but this was not honorable behavior.. Usually, the VA will deny your claim for a few reasons. Neither were smokers or drug users. However, Agent Orange was extremely toxic, and the lives of many were affected by inhaling the fumes. Meanwhile, two major studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that there was little connection between exposure to herbicides and birth defects. The analysis has its limitations, including the self-selected nature of the veterans who took part in the registry and the self-reported information they provided. Quite honestly, its not the monetary payoff. Vietnam vets and their advocates believe a brutal calculation may lie at the heart of why their claims have gone unexamined. Over the past 18 months, more than 6,000 vets and their family members confronting Agent Orange-related issues have shared their stories with ProPublica and The Pilot. Fewer than 10 percent of veterans fit this criteria. Hannah Fresques is a data fellow at ProPublica. He was a co-author on the 2012 paper that found dioxin induces lingering effects in the offspring and future generations of female rats. Seven years later, some of Albaneses concerns were investigated by the Government Accountability Office and at a congressional hearing in 2000. Mike Ryan said it was never about the money; it was about recognition of the debt he believes his country owes his daughter. The VA, for example, had no way of verifying the vets Agent Orange exposure and did not independently confirm information about their childrens birth defects. This is something that happened to you and your family., Matthew Penner, whose dad is an Army veteran, found Bowsers group and said reading others stories just blew my mind. The list goes on., Bowser, who lives in Canfield, Ohio, said her group has been limited by a lack of funding, but they have reached out to scientists working on the issues in the United States and Vietnam. Web. Slightly more than 13 percent of veterans who sprayed, handled or were sprayed with Agent Orange reported having a child with birth defects born during or after the war, compared to nearly 10 percent of veterans who were not exposed or were unsure. Porter also serves on the board of Birth Defect Research for Children, which has attempted to gather data on birth defects to be analyzed in a way the VA has not done. She believes her data shows elevated numbers of birth defects especially those affecting a childs immune and nervous systems in offspring of Vietnam veterans, though those findings have not been confirmed in a published study. A year later, the Ryans pushed Kerry into a congressional hearing in a wheelchair to testify about her struggles, prompting then Rep. Al Gore, D-Tennessee, to ask, I wonder what the reaction of the VA would be if the enemy had used Agent Orange? In the fall of 1980, President-elect Ronald Reagan arranged a meeting to learn about their struggle and concerns about the herbicide. In 2007, a panel of the prestigious Institute of Medicine said the VA should review all the possible cognitive and developmental effects in offspring of veterans. My parents had no idea. The disease is at least a rating of 10% or higher. In 1979, a team of researchers had embarked on a $143 million, 20-year study of those Air Force vets whod had the greatest exposure to Agent Orange: Those whod sprayed it. But he said he hasnt found additional funds to continue the work in male rats. Due to the number of people exposed to Agent Orange, it has indirectly affected many in the United States, including the children of Veterans. Finally in 1988, under pressure from members of Congress, the study Albanese had worked on was released, but with only his name on it. Finally, sometimes that medical opinion given by the VA doctor lacks the necessary legal language that the VA is looking for when giving a Veteran a rating. For decades, the military and the VA have repeatedly turned to one man to guide decisions on whether Agent Orange harmed vets in Vietnam and elsewhere. The analysis focused on a group of 37,535 veterans who had children born before their service in the war as well as during or after, in part because many of the factors relevant to birth defects wouldnt change, including the veterans genetic makeup. documenting health conditions and noting when and where they served. A 2012 study, for example, showed that gestating female rats exposed to dioxin, a byproduct found in Agent Orange, passed mutations to future generations. They found that, contrary to the main published findings, there is distinct evidence that the children of those who handled Agent Orange had more birth defects and developmental disabilities. If you are a Veteran who served in the Vietnam War, you probably know what Agent Orange is. Its like a sign that says Dig Here and theyre not digging, said Dr. David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at Boston University and co-editor-in-chief of the online journal Environmental Health, after reviewing ProPublicas findings. With extensive experience working with VA disability claims, Berry Law can help you with your disability appeals. Its the acknowledgement that a parent suffered, we suffered, and something needs to be acknowledged. Though no study makes a definite claim as to whether Agent Orange causes birth defects in Veterans children, it has a likelihood of doing so. If researchers conclude that troops wartime exposures can affect future generations, the implications go well beyond Vietnam veterans and their descendants. Today the registry is primarily used to keep track of vets contact information. The questionnaire collected detailed information about veterans service, health conditions and possible exposure to herbicides, asking vets whether they handled or sprayed Agent Orange, were directly sprayed with it, were in an area recently sprayed with it, ate or drank food that may have come in contact with it, or were exposed to other herbicides. A lot of people probably dont think about it because a lot of people dont want to think about it, said Ralph Thornburgh, an Army vet whose two daughters born after Vietnam have had health problems, including one with leukemia. They presented the work at a 2003 international dioxin meeting, but their manuscript was not accepted for publication in a scientific journal. Then, four years later, the Air Force published a follow-up paper that claimed no evidence had been found linking Agent Orange exposure to birth defects in the mens children. At Berry Law, we have a team of experienced attorneys to help. A disease linked to the exposure of Agent Orange. Sign up to get ProPublicas major investigations delivered to your inbox. PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME. That really put it together for me.. Of those, only 1,325 claimants have received benefits. The No Fee Guarantee is subject to and conditioned by the written retainer entered into and will or may require that you remain responsible for costs and disbursements related to the claim. document.getElementById( "ak_js" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Lawyers 6940 O St, Suite 400 Lincoln, NE 68510. There was no ultrasound and that kind of stuff, so I made quite a shocking entry into the world., Five years ago, Bowser co-founded Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance, which has since grown to nearly 4,000 members who swap stories or vent about doctors who dismiss their concerns about Agent Orange. You might be a Veteran whose son or daughter has certain birth defects. All you have to show is that you were exposed to it and presume that it caused your disability, given that no other evidence says otherwise. Web. I dont think its too late. Experts, too, have seen their calls for more research die without explanation. If you were exposed to Agent Orange, you could connect the birth defect to exposure, even without a definite study. Though it may be challenging to receive disability compensation for these birth defects, there are still ways that those directly exposed to it can receive VA benefits. By 1978, Agent Orange and its potential effects had become a national controversy. In a written response on Thursday, the VA called ProPublicas findings interesting and a step in the right direction, saying they raise additional questions. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Some said it was inexplicable that VA had collected all their information, then simply stashed it away unexamined. http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/birth-defects/children-women-vietnam-vets.asp. That leaves out the vast majority of vets ailing children. The joke turned sour a few years ago, when Matthew, now 43, was diagnosed with a host of serious illnesses, including heart disease, fibromyalgia and arthritis. Because of this, many make a presumptive service connection. His study found a statistically significant increase in reported birth defects among veterans who handled Agent Orange. Vietnam veterans reported a higher rate of birth defects in their children but that finding was not validated in follow-up reviews of hospital records. If so, you can review it with our attorneys to ensure that the documents you give to the VA contain the necessary language. As of today, no definitive evidence states that someone whose father was a Veteran and exposed to Agent Orange would suffer from birth defects. Many Vietnam veterans, reaching the ends of their lives, are increasingly haunted by thoughts of the full cost of their service. 1. For any more information, or if you require help in the process of making a claim, please visit our website. These people really bent over backwards to try to disprove a connection, he said. Albanese, who now runs a small defense consulting company in San Antonio, said he believes the episode was part of a broader government effort to suppress findings connecting Agent Orange to the health of veterans and their children. This story was co-published with The Virginian-Pilot. His daughter born before the war is healthy but the one conceived afterward was born with cysts on her head. | The Aspen Institute, The Children of Agent Orange ProPublica, Dioxins, Furans and Dioxin-Like Polychlorinated Biphenyls Factsheet | National Biomonitoring Program | Center for Disease Control (CDC), Paternal military service in Vietnam and the risk of late adverse pregnancy outcomes | American Journal of Public Health. In its written response, the VA said it has already requested a related report from the National Academy of Medicine. Seeing your new granddaughter come out like that?. His son has inflammatory bowel disease so advanced he wears a pouch to collect his waste, and his youngest daughter has neuropathy, spinal problems and gastrointestinal issues. This year, yet another IOM panel weighed in, reporting no progress on the earlier recommendations and encouraging more research in animals. But she said new technology could be used to answer at least some questions. Service records will ensure that the VA can see how the service directly or indirectly caused your disability. The VA Besides, he said, the epidemiology is always going to be complicated. Even though it is no longer used for war, Agent Orange still affects many people who were born from Veterans who served in Vietnam and Korea. Certain substances and situations that you encounter while serving in the military can cause disabilities in other people. ProPublica looked for differences in birth defect rates among children of veterans who said they were exposed to Agent Orange compared to those who said they werent or werent sure. Principal Office Caring for and compensating veterans themselves already costs tens of billions of dollars a year. Our No Fee Guarantee means that unless we are successful with your claim you dont pay for our advocates services. The most intensive study done on this issue is by ProPublica, which goes over the effects of Agent Orange. Maybe its not the answer that people want, but at least it would be an answer.. Knowing why the VA denies certain claims will always help you craft an appeal. (877) 777-4021 has asked questions about their childrens birth defects, before and after the war. Were not going to be able to scientifically go back and reconstruct what could have happened 50 years ago.. Mike Ryan, an Army vet, recalled seeing planes spraying Agent Orange overhead during his 13-month Vietnam tour but thought little of it until 1976, when his wife, Maureen, made the connection between the toxic herbicide and their daughter, Kerry.