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American Morning
Government Finally Admitting Connection Between Gulf War Veterans and ALS
Aired January 10, 2002 - 08:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It took years, but the government is finally admitting a connection between Gulf War veterans and ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. For one family that waged a personal crusade to make the Gulf War link a matter of public record, the victory is bittersweet.
Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The F-16, the Maserati of the sky. Only the best get to pilot them, and Michael Donnelly was one of best. He was the picture of a top gun pilot during the Gulf War, complete with the winning smile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tackle him! Pull him down by his ankles!
CARROLL: And the loving family. But those picture-perfect days are gone.
This is Michael today.
SUSAN DONNELLY, MICHAEL'S WIFE: Nobody wants to hear that you have a fatal illness, and that you have two to five years to live.
CARROLL: But that's what doctors said. In 1996, Michael was diagnosed with ALS, atrophic lateral sclerosis, better known at Lou Gehrig's Disease, and was forced to leave the military he loved.
DONNELLY: It's the worst thing that could happen to anybody. It's the most awful disease there is.
CARROLL: Neurological in nature, ALS leaves the mind intact but destroys the body, by attacking nerve cells, slowly paralyzing its victim.
DONNELLY: When I met Mike, he was walking and talking five years ago. And now here he is, and the only thing Michael is able to do today is nod his head and blink his eyes.
CARROLL: Which is how he is now left to communicate.
Michael is in the advanced stage of ALS, a ventilator and feeding tube keep him alive. But the 42-year-old former fighter pilot has not given up. He's waged a campaign, fighting to secure benefits for more than 40 Gulf War veterans, who, like him, have developed ALS.
THOMAS DONNELLY, MICHAEL'S FATHER: What has happened to Michael, and we believe most of the other Gulf War veterans who have this diagnosis is a series of low-dose exposures to nerve gas during the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was in the 10th tactical fighter squad. These are the decorations from the Gulf War.
CARROLL: Getting the government to take responsibility for ALS has been an uphill battle, because of the belief there wasn't a scientific link between chemical agents and ALS.
In 1997, Michael told his story to Congress, arguing his illness was linked to service in the Gulf. His father joined the fight lobbying for a study on gulf war ALS.
T. DONNELLY: The frustration is the in many ways, unaccountable inability of the officials of our government to credit these people with really being sick.
CARROLL: After years of leading this fight here at home, a victory.
ANTHONY PRINCIPI, VETERANS AFFAIRS OFFICE: Young men and women who served in the Gulf during the period of August 1, 1990 to July 31, 1991 had nearly a twofold increase risk of contracting ALS than those who did not serve in the Gulf.
CARROLL: As a result, VA secretary Anthony Principi says his office will provide Gulf War veterans with medical care and benefits.
RAE DONNELLY, MICHAEL'S MOTHER: It's a vindication and validation that you're not betrayed anymore, that there are people that will do what's right.
CARROLL (on camera): What do you want people to know or to learn about what has happened to you?
S. DONNELLY: A-E, we need one. A, we need a 1-A-B-C. We need a cure.
CARROLL (voice-over): Jason Carroll, CNN, South Windsor, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Michael Donnelly has written a book about his wartime experience and his illness with the help of his sister. It is called "Falcon's Cry: A Desert Storm Memoir."
And Michael's sister, Denise Donnelly, joins me now.
Welcome. DENISE DONNELLY, MICHAEL DONNELLY'S SISTER: Thank you, Paula.
ZAHN: I tell you, the strength of your family is amazing. We just had an opportunity to meet about half of it now. It's extraordinary what your family's been through. How vindicated does Michael feel at this point now that this linkage has been made between Gulf War Syndrome and ALS?
DONNELLY: think -- I know that Michael is thrilled and gratified that this struggle has not been in vain, because it was not a conclusion that he came to willingly, that the government was betraying him, and covering up what was, to us, a very clear link between service in the Gulf, and ALS and other illnesses.
ZAHN: What ultimately made the government accept this theory that there was a connection?
DONNELLY: I can't speak for the officials in the government, including Secretary Princippi, but I think it was the vast accumulation of evidence, the weight of which was just unignoreable. It's very, very clear, if you look at any of the numbers, if you look at any of the epidemiological flags, that something happened to these veterans, these soldiers, while serving their country.
ZAHN: Michael writes this in the book, but explain to us when you think he got sick. When was he exposed to bad chemicals?
DONNELLY: We believed that what happened to Michael and to other veterans is that as he was dropping the bombs on the chemical and biological factories and munitions depots in Iraq, turning around and flying back through the fallout, they were flying on ambient air, so they were taking in the atmosphere, which contained particles of these chemicals. And these chemicals were also adhering to the plane. The flight crew would climb all over the plane, and it would adhere to their skin.
It was these repeated low-dose exposures and then subsequent exposures once they returned to the U.S. to very common pesticides, malathigon (ph), parathighon (ph), windang (ph), dursban (ph), which are chemically identical to sarin and veak (ph), the nerve agents that they were exposed to.
ZAHN: Now why would Michael and his Air Force colleagues be exposed to that back home?
DONNELLY: Malathigon and parathighon, these very common pesticides. Malathigon is what they sprayed the city of New York with last summer, when they were concerned about West Nile virus. These are organal phosphate poisons, they are chemically identical, and they kill the same way.
ZAHN: And they were used at his base.
DONNELLY: They were used in his base, and he suffered a massive exposure to malathigon at Sheppard Air Force Base when they were spraying for mosquitoes back in 1995. ZAHN: What is interesting about your brother's struggle is that the air force covered his medical expenses all along, but, in fact, his fight was for the other veterans who weren't getting coverage?
DONNELLY: That's right, Michael, if you can say this, Michael was fortunate in that he was still active duty when he became ill. Most of the other veterans who have became ill became ill after they were discharged. Therefore, there was no way they could qualify for benefits. Now, with this acknowledgement, at least these veterans who have the ALS diagnosis will get the benefits they deserve. It won't make a difference for Michael financially, but he was fighting for his men. As an officer, he saw it as his duty to take up this struggle.
ZAHN: It was a heartbreaking for all of us to see the pictures of your brother, and yet the one thing he continues to have is dignity, and in a great abundance. What does it mean to him that this book is out there, that people are talking about it, and that he has helped improve the fate of dozens of fellow colleagues?
DONNELLY: It's tremendously rewarding for him. It gives him a great purpose in life. It makes him feel that his suffering has not been for nothing, and that he's been able to help people, even given the fact that he's paralyzed, and can't speak and can't do anything. He's still a hero to all of us. He has great courage.
ZAHN: His strength lives on in all of you as well as -- well, you can see it even in him to this day.
Susan, thanks once again. Excuse me, Denise Donnelly. The name of the book is "Falcon's Cry," a powerful book.
Thank you. My best to your family as well.
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