LAWTON, Okla_A Southwest Oklahoma
Marine Veteran is getting some long-awaited medical help from the U.S. Government,
help that he said he only needs because of what happened to him while he was on
active duty.
Kenneth Sims
and thousands of others, who were stationed at Camp Lejeune
from January 1957 to December 1987, were subjected to contaminated drinking
water. Last Wednesday, the United States Senate unanimously passed the Lejeune Water
Contamination Health Care Bill, aimed at helping the victims. Many of those who
lived and worked at Camp
Lejeune drank the water
which was full of cancer-causing agents.
Kenneth Sims
spent three years at Camp
Lejeune and first noticed
something was wrong while he was still there on active duty in the Marines.
It's been a fight for his health ever since,
Several colloids
ripple the left arm and face of Kenneth Sims scars left from needles being
stuck in him during dialysis. From July 1974 to August 1977 he was in the field
infantry at Camp Lejeune. He was getting ready to fight
battles overseas and never dreamed his real fight would come from the
water.
"We were
drinking it, cooking in it, bathing in it and just absorbing it through the
body."
Sims said he
first noticed signs of something wrong with his health while still on active
duty.
"I started
having headaches and different things and my body didn't know what was going on.
Being a 19 year old I just shrugged it off."
He assumed it
was high blood pressure, a common health issue in his family, so he let it go.
But in the early 90's his health took a serious turn for the worse. His kidney
failed, leading to dialysis treatments, which he still gets three times a week.
Then, in 2003, a closer look at those recurring headaches revealed brain
cancer. Radiation shrunk that tumor.
"It's been
painful. I have a regiment that I have to embark upon daily just to deal with
what I have to go through and I mean it's a hard task but I have to keep moving.
I have to keep living."
The first bit
of good news in Sims battle came in 2009 when he received a letter from the Marine
Corps informing him of the contaminated water at base. Something the government
had some knowledge about during the time he was stationed there.
"A
culmination of emotions, you go through anger. You think about this is my
country I love it and we made many, many sacrifices and they kept this a secret
knowing that it was effecting soldiers and so you're somewhat disappointed in
your government for doing this."
Sims said these
days he's turned to karate and painting to help ease the struggle of thinking about
what has been done to him and forgive the government about not telling Marines
what was going on.
"I feel
like they should compensate for health care and the medical things that we've
faced. They need to step up and do the right thing and I think it's
embarrassing for our country to keep a secret like this and it comes and nobody
wants to take the blame or the responsibility for what happened to us. We're affected
for life."
Sims said he
has a medical claim with the VA system regarding the Camp Lejeune
water contamination and is taking steps to get that resolved.
Supporters of
the bill say it may take a few weeks before the house makes a decision. If it
does pass, it may be on the president's desk by the end of the summer.
