Fwd: Widow fears Pentagon 'lying' on pneumonia - 21 Aug 2003

[Guest guest]

" luckypig "

Fri, 22 Aug 2003 12:41:33 -0400

Widow fears Pentagon 'lying' on pneumonia - 21 Aug

2003

 

This is the latest in an investigative series at: www.upi.com

 

> http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030821-045901-1924r

>

>

> Widow fears Pentagon 'lying' on pneumonia

>

> By Mark Benjamin

>

> Published 8/21/2003 5:49 PM

>

>

> WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Joining a growing chorus of families, the

widow

> of a soldier in Iraq who died of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness said

> Thursday she fears the military may be lying about her husband's death.

>

>

> She said she worries that he may have died from the anthrax vaccine shots

the

> Army gave him.

>

>

> " More and more I think it was the shots, " said Stephanie Tosto, whose

> husband, Army Sgt. Michael L. Tosto, died June 17. Tosto said the military

has given

> her little information about her husband's death.

>

>

> " I think they [the Army] might be lying about this stuff, " Tosto, 22, said

in

> a telephone interview from Baumholder, Germany. " I really feel like it.

> Nobody can tell me anything. If it is the shots, then of course they are

lying. "

>

>

> " We just want to know what happened and we have a right to know. But the

Army

> is acting like they are trying to hide something, and that just makes it

> harder. "

>

>

> Michael Tosto, 24, died at Camp Wolf in Kuwait after falling ill in Iraq

> three days earlier. The military listed his death as " a non-combat related

cause. "

> Stephanie Tosto said the Army has told her that her husband had a

> pneumonia-like illness, but little more.

>

>

> " They have told me that he had fluid in his lungs and it got into his

tissue

> and I believe fluid around his heart, " Tosto said.

>

>

> Last week, the families of two soldiers who died after a pneumonia-like

> illness, Army Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga and Army Spc. Joshua M. Neusche,

wrote

> Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seeking an independent investigation

into their

> deaths. " We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the

truth, "

> say the similar Aug. 12 letters to Rumsfeld, facilitated by the National

Gulf

> War Resource Center, a veterans' advocacy group.

>

>

> The Pentagon is investigating more than 100 cases of mysterious pneumonia

> among troops in Iraq and in Southwest Asia. Eighteen soldiers have

required

> respirators, according to the Pentagon. At least two have died, Tosto and

Neusche.

> The Army has said Colunga's death is not related to the cluster of

> pneumonia-like illnesses.

>

>

> The week before, the father of a fourth soldier, Army Spc. Rachael Lacy,

told

> United Press International that the military was " covering up " Lacy's

April 4

> death from vaccines. The civilian coroner who performed her autopsy and a

> doctor who treated her have both said the smallpox or anthrax vaccines she

> received March 2 might have caused her death, which followed a

pneumonia-like

> illness.

>

>

> " The common denominator [in the pneumonia-like illnesses] is smallpox and

> anthrax vaccinations, " said Moses Lacy. " The government is covering this

up and

> it is a dog-gone shame. "

>

>

> The Army has not classified Lacy's death as possibly related to vaccines.

>

>

> In a fifth case, a staffer for Rep. Chris Shays said the Connecticut

> Republican is closely following the Pentagon investigation -- and the

possibility that

> vaccines might play a role -- after the death of Army Staff Sergeant

Richard

> S. Eaton Jr., 37, of Guilford, Conn., on August 12. Eaton's death was

> characterized by the Pentagon as a pulmonary embolism while sleeping.

Shays has led

> hearings on the Pentagon's anthrax vaccination program.

>

>

> Pentagon health officials did not return a phone call Thursday seeking

> comment. The head of the Pentagon's vaccine program told UPI this week

that vaccine

> side effects are an unlikely cause for the sicknesses and deaths.

>

>

> " In 200 years of vaccinations, no vaccine has ever been shown to cause

> pneumonia and there are multiple reasons to believe that the vaccines have

no role, "

> said Col. John D. Grabenstein, deputy director for clinical operations at

the

> Military Vaccine Agency.

>

>

> Stephanie Tosto said another soldier on guard duty with Michael in Iraq on

> June 14 said he at first seemed fine, but over a period of hours he turned

> white, his lips went blue, he began vomiting and then vomiting blood. She

said

> Tosto's medical records show him at a medical aid station June 15th

complaining of

> " tightness in the chest. "

>

>

> On June 16 she had a telephone conversation with a doctor treating her

> husband who said Michael had bad pneumonia and trouble breathing. " The

doctor

> sounded very concerned because he was having such trouble breathing, "

Tosto said.

>

>

> She had a brief telephone conversation with her husband June 16. " He said,

> 'Hey baby, I'm sick. I have pneumonia.' He told me that he loved me. He

sounded

> very weak and tired. "

>

>

> " The next day, Wednesday, they came to the house and said he died from

> complications from pneumonia, " Tosto said. " When my husband died, the

casualty

> officer asked me, 'Is it possible that Michael had heart problems?'

Michael did not

> have heart problems. One other time they asked me if he had asthma. He was

> never sick. "

>

>

> Stephanie Tosto said that her husband's medical records show him receiving

> the first three of six scheduled anthrax shots before leaving Germany, the

last

> on Feb. 26. She says another soldier from Tosto's 1st Armored Division

said

> soldiers in the division did receive an anthrax shot in Iraq. Tosto

arrived

> there on the first or second day in May.

>

>

> Stephanie Tosto said the last pages of her husband's medical record showed

> redness and swelling in the arms but that the military would not allow her

to

> see her husband's body until after an autopsy was performed in Germany. He

was

> then in a dress uniform with white gloves.

>

>

> She says Michael Tosto got a smallpox shot back in March. " He had to go

back

> for the follow-up and he said he was feeling lousy " after getting that

vaccine.

>

>

> Stephanie Tosto said she struggles with explaining Michael Tosto's death

to

> her 21-month-old son.

>

>

> " He keeps pointing at his daddy's picture and saying, 'Daddy.' All I can

tell

> him is 'Daddy went bye-bye.' So now he points at his picture and says,

'Daddy

> bye-bye.' I don't know what to tell him because I don't know. I wonder if

I

> will ever know. "

>

>

> The Pentagon says the anthrax vaccine is safe.

>

>

> In an August 2002 case study of a 39-year old " previously healthy man on

> active duty " in the Cardiopulmonary and Critical Care Journal CHEST, three

> military doctors described the case of a 39-year-old who was diagnosed

with pneumonia

> that " may be due to the anthrax vaccine. " And a review by a government

> advisory committee in 2002 found one case of pneumonia " considered

probably related

> to [anthrax] vaccination. "

>

>

> PREVIOUS STORY:

>

> Doctor: Pentagon slow in vaccine death

>

> http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030818-060641-9420r

>