Groth Gets it! by Groth Law Accident Injury Attorneys – Camp Lejeune, Armed Forces, and Water Contamination

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What happened at Camp Lejeune and why does it matter?

 

In this episode of Groth Gets it! from Groth Law Accident Injury Attorneys, Jon talks with attorney Ryan about Camp Lejeune and the water contamination that occurred. Attorney Ryan is able to give context to the water contamination given that he worked in the medical field early in his career and even shares some stories from his time doing that.

Transcript:

Jon Groth:

Welcome to Groth Gets It. Here we are again. We’re talking about contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. And specifically, what kind of injuries are being seen from people who served in the Armed Services. Specifically, the Marines in Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina. And we’re talking about this just because there’s been a lot on … gosh, on the TV. It’s kind of like one of those times a year, when you enter into the political world and every other commercial is this person running for Senate or that person running for governor.

Jon Groth:

Now it seems every other commercial seems to be an ad for a law firm that’s talking about people who may have been injured because they ingested water while they were serving in the Armed Services or were on the base, maybe not serving, but were staff on base at Camp Lejeune over the past, I believe it’s 30 some years. There is a law that was passed, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, that enables those people to receive compensation if you were harmed by toxic water at Camp Lejeune. There are certain requirements you have to get and there’s a timeline. I think it’s as little as two years that you have, where you have to get your information and then prove that you have an injury that’s related to this. And then there’s presumptive injuries and non-presumptive injuries and things like that.

Jon Groth:

And we can talk about the DDT 14 forms or other forms you have to get from the VA to try to get evidence that you have an injury related to this toxic water, but I’m getting ahead of myself. What kind of injuries, Ryan … and I have Ryan here. You were just saying before, Ryan, you used to work in a lab. So I mean, you are the perfect person to have talk about this, because we’re talking about chemicals that I can’t really even say. I mean, the easiest one is what?

Ryan:

Benzene.

Jon Groth:

Benzene, which is terrible, it sounds like, right?

Ryan:

Oh, yeah. Because we were just talking about this, that, so there I was in the lab, and we were doing some genetic testing. And one of the things we were using was benzene, and big warnings all over it. Carcinogenic, be very careful when handling it. Of course, one of the first things I do is I use my pipette, grab the amount I needed, and dripped it directly on my pants. It just soaked right in. It is a very serious chemical. And if you ever deal with it, be much smarter than me and don’t pipette over your lap.

Jon Groth:

Oh my goodness. Wow. But they warned you and they said, this is trouble, right? This is bad news, benzene. And I’m assuming you were wearing, what, eye protection?

Ryan:

Absolutely. We had the full PPE. It’s one of those bottles that you see that just looks scary. It was just the darker bottle with just the warnings all over it. So it was very clear that it was something to be highly respected. You have to understand the chemical can really cause problems.

Jon Groth:

Yeah. My gosh. So let me go through, because that’s the easiest one to say. I don’t know if you can help me say this one, trichloroethylene? TCE. T-R-I-C-H-L-O-R-O-E-T-H-Y-L-E-N-E. Wow, that’s a tough one. I can’t say it very easily. The other one is perchloroethylene. P-E-R-C-H-L-O-R-O-E-T-H-Y-L-E-N-E. So that’s more commonly PCE. It’s a lot easier to say.

Ryan:

A bit easier, yeah.

Jon Groth:

Yeah. So you have TCE, PCE, and benzene. So my understanding is that if you were at the military base back in the 80s, really, and before that, they were using TCE for industrial purposes as a degreaser and a solvent to clean, well, just the equipment. So weapons, all the military, I’ll say Jeeps, or vehicles in general. And then there was … PCE was used as a fabric solvent at a commercial dry cleaning. And I think there was a dry cleaner right along the way there, right by the base that was like, ABC One Hour Cleaners or something like that. That was really close to the base and they were using the PCE in the commercial dry cleaning. So that also contaminated the water. And then you had benzene that was used for, it sounds like just general purposes for the chemicals and such and other things.

Jon Groth:

So you have these three chemicals that were used a lot and then soaked into the groundwater. And people drank the groundwater, bathed in the groundwater, things like that. And there’s a bunch of, I think I’d say cancers that are related to this ingestion, to this contamination. So what do you have, I guess with that, Ryan? Sorry. There’s presumptive and non-presumptive. So presumptive means what, do you know?

Ryan:

So presumptive would be that if you have one of these, of this list of cancers and other issues, that it’s pretty certain that was caused by being exposed at Camp Lejeune.

Jon Groth:

And if it’s non-presumptive, maybe someday they’ll have more science that will determine that it was in fact caused by the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, but we’re not quite sure as we sit here now. And that’s something that, knowing these, what’s called a mass tort case, the science can change. What they do is they usually have a science day where they’ll have professors come in and then explain to the judge and say, hey, this is what’s going on. So you have a general idea and then you become more of an expert as this case proceeds.

Jon Groth:

And certainly as you have universities and scientists who get more interested in this, they’re going to be conducting more and more studies. And maybe they will determine that one of the non-presumptives should be moved from non-presumptive to presumptive. And then you have an additional class of people that will possibly be able to get compensation from the act here. So, interesting. So tell me, what are a few of these injuries? Do you want to just go through, do you have a list of them?

Ryan:

Yeah. So it’s going to be fascinating radio right now, us going through some list of injuries. So a lot of these … and it makes sense. Because a lot of these are cancers or things that would’ve affected a person, what you’d expect from toxic chemicals, such as what were found there. So starting off, we have bladder cancer, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, liver cancer, lung cancer, multiple myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Parkinson’s disease.

Jon Groth:

Oh wow.

Ryan:

And looking at multiple myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and leukemia, essentially, these are three blood cancers. There’s also female infertility and miscarriage, also are presumptive. Included is also aplastic anemia, hepatic steatosis, myelodysplastic syndromes, neurobehavioral effects, which is a big category. So this can be anything from memory and concentration issues. This can be insomnia, this can be PTSD. So it’s really a big category included in there. Then there’s also renal toxicity, which is issues with the kidney, and scleroderma.

Jon Groth:

Okay. So I was looking up … how do you say it? Myelodysplastic syndrome?

Ryan:

Yep.

Jon Groth:

Is that right? And that was just interesting because it involves anemia, dysplasia. There’s a bunch of different things that … gosh. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, maybe 11 different subcategories on that. So we’re talking about just general, I guess the top of the umbrella here. And then you look at a lot of different subcategories from these particular categories.

Ryan:

Sure. And myelodysplastic syndrome, this kind of falls back to what I was saying with these blood cancers. So not all myelodysplastic syndromes is going to be a blood cancer, but basically it’s a situation where the blood cells cannot mature. So this can affect anything from the white blood cells to the red blood cells. So that’s why people who have these have issues. They might be more fatigued, more weak than usual, because for example, the white blood cells, they can’t fully mature. So now you’re not getting proper oxygen to vital organs and things like that. So these are major issues.

Jon Groth:

And that myelodysplastic, is that a form of cancer?

Ryan:

Not always.

Jon Groth:

Okay. All right. But that deals with, like you said, the red blood cells … or the blood cells that are not able to mature in the bone marrow? Interesting. Okay. Interesting. So presumptive, non-presumptive, we got that. What is presumptive? What is non-presumptive? We answered that question. We answered what kind of injuries are our attorneys looking at to help people get compensation from the toxic water at Camp Lejeune, we went through that.

Jon Groth:

And then what in general started all this. We discussed that at the very beginning, right? With the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. I think I saw that, maybe just a few weeks ago, that the president signed it into law. Interesting. So with that, there’s a number of different law firms across the nation … we’re based in Wisconsin. I know, Ryan, you have clients who are, literally worldwide, right?

Ryan:

All over the place.

Jon Groth:

With our Vaccine Practice. Which is a different podcast, a different conversation we can have. But we’re used to helping out clients who are not only in Wisconsin, but in the Midwest or internationally. So with this, that’s what we’re looking at, is exactly what kind of injuries are related to people who may have been serving at Camp Lejeune in the past few decades. And we’re working with a firm whose, one of their named partners is maybe one of the top toxic water litigators in the world.

Jon Groth:

And that’s how we’re trying to help people, certainly in Wisconsin, look at this and say, hey, if I was injured because I was at Camp Lejeune, I ingested, I had this toxic water, but I don’t know what to do. And I want to deal with a Wisconsin law firm. They can come to us, talk to you, talk to me and say, okay, how can you help us? And we’ll get them to the right place. And understand that we’re going to work together with another law firm to make sure that we’re in the right line, because there are wrong lines. You want to make sure that you’re in the right line in litigation, in the right jurisdiction venue, so they will get at least a chance to get compensation for their injuries.

Jon Groth:

There’s a lot that we can unpack in here because this is really complex and this is coming on somewhat fast, I’ll say. Because I don’t know, did you hear about this last year, even?

Ryan:

No, no. To be fully honest, the first time I heard of it was when you were like, oh let’s talk about Camp Lejeune.

Jon Groth:

Yeah. It came on pretty darn fast. I mean, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, it was just signed in the law recently. And it’s been on my radar as something, and then I had a long phone conversation with some friends of mine who are very active in this. And then we realized, okay, what’s going on? And then taking a step back, you understand that there are so many military service men and women in Wisconsin who may have served there over the years. And maybe they lived in North Carolina, but they retired to Wisconsin or vice versa, and came back to Wisconsin and had some roots here. So they want to deal with a Wisconsin law firm.

Jon Groth:

That’s the service we’re going to hopefully provide, is have them … well, hopefully help them to understand what the process is and get to the right people. To make sure that they’re going to get compensation under this Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. Interesting stuff. So what else can we talk about with this? Is there anything else that you had in your notes?

Ryan:

No, but I was talking to a client today. And I mean, looking at these issues that are included in this, they’re very serious and people who are suffering from this are truly suffering. One of our jobs as attorneys is to make sure we take care of the legal end so you don’t have to. Just focus on getting better, spend time with your family. Because this, again, very serious injuries. So that’s what we’re here for. That’s why we have these jobs is to help people out. So you don’t have to think about this while we handle it for you.

Jon Groth:

Well, that’s a good point. It’s a fantastic point, that we can hopefully make this somewhat less stressful, right?

Ryan:

Yeah.

Jon Groth:

So one of the things that might be stressing out is, how do I prove that I have this kind of injury? And I can guarantee, dealing with the VA to get medical records is difficult. We have had experiences, I’ll say in a very nice way. Over the past 22 plus years of me being a lawyer, I’ve had lots of different experiences trying to get medical bills and records from the VA, and it just depends. I mean, it can be like pulling teeth. There is the DDT14 form that you should be able to request and that’ll help you get your medical records.

Jon Groth:

There’s two VA portals that you can go into to try to get your medical records. It’s kind of like, I’ll call it an Epic, like a MyChart. A medical records chart that you can go online and get your medical records. Like Aurora in Wisconsin, Ascension, Froedtert, Medical College of Wisconsin, they all have their different types of portals to get medical records. The VA also has different portals that you can go in and get medical records.

Jon Groth:

But that’s just a couple things that you can look into to hopefully understand that we understand. So when you come to us and want to get some assistance to hopefully make this less stress, you know that we know how to get these medical records and hopefully help you prove what kind of injuries may have been related to this. Yeah. Anyway, it’s the DD form … I think it’s DD214, the discharge papers and such. Anyway, anything else that we can talk about now?

Ryan:

I think we’ve covered most of the basics on this.

Jon Groth:

Yeah. That sounds good. Yeah. I appreciate you taking the time, Ryan. Thank you for your work and your knowledge. You have a lot more knowledge of these technical terms. And well, gosh. I mean, how many people have spilled benzene on themselves?

Ryan:

I was going to say, I have a lot of knowledge of lab accidents.

Jon Groth:

Well, but how many attorneys have worked in a lab, right? I mean, that’s what’s so interesting. And that’s why you’re heading our Vaccine Injury Division, because I mean, how many people have that kind of scientific knowledge? So we really appreciate all you do and all the knowledge that you give to our clients and our staff.

Ryan:

Thank you.

Jon Groth:

Thank you very much. All right, that’ll do it. Hopefully this proves that Groth Gets It, and that we understand how to help you out in these kind of terrible situations. If you have any questions, certainly (414) 999-0000 is the easy number to remember. You can go to grothlawfirm.com, or just stop by our office and we can talk to you. All right. Thanks, Ryan.

Ryan:

Thank you.

 

 

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