Mysterious Illness Plagues Gulf War Vets

Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic Frank Schmuck, who flew several missions as an Air Force pilot in the Gulf War, suffered from "Gulf War Syndrome" and believes the illness is linked to thimerisol, a preservative that was used in vaccines he was given before heading to war.

Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 10, 2003 12:00 AM

Before she went to the Persian Gulf as an Air Force reservist in Desert Storm, September Amyx feared the worst: death.

But after a dozen years of being so sick she felt like she was "walking hip deep in water," Amyx realizes that her fear was misplaced.

"I'm living death," said the 46-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills woman, who recently moved to California.

A victim of "Gulf War Syndrome," Amyx has spent years trying to pinpoint the source of her never-ending fatigue, anxiety, depression and "fibro fog," a condition, which she says stems from fibromyalgia, that doesn't allow her to think clearly.

Tens of thousands of servicemen and women returned from Desert Storm with various ailments lumped together as "Gulf War Syndrome." The condition has since been renamed "Multisymptom Undiagnosed Illness" and is characterized by fatigue, insomnia, headaches, short-term memory loss, muscle aches, vague skin rashes, weight loss and gastrointestinal problems such as constipation and diarrhea.

The symptoms still plague veterans like Amyx, a reservist who loaded and unloaded equipment in large C-5 cargo planes bound for the Persian Gulf beginning in August 1990. She flew multiple missions to and from the gulf as oil fields burned.

The 36-year-old Tempe man was an Air Force pilot who flew several missions to the gulf beginning in August 1990. By May 1991, Schmuck returned to the states 40 pounds lighter, suffering from insomnia, fatigue and muscle aches that made sitting in a chair excruciating.

"I had no meat on my bones," he said. "I felt like I had brain fog."

After researching his illnesses, a process that "was wearing me out just trying to find a cause," Schmuck believes he was poisoned by a preservative used in the multiple vaccines he was given before serving in the gulf. The preservative, thimerisol, is an ethylmercury-based compound that was used in childhood vaccines until 1999. Vaccine-makers, under pressure from Congress, removed thimerisol from children's vaccines because of its potential risk as a neurotoxin.

But the preservative remains in many adult vaccines, and Schmuck said he believes he received more than the allowable limits by getting several vaccinations at the same time.

"I'm the link between Gulf War Syndrome and autism," he said, referring to theories that ethylmercury in childhood vaccinations may be responsible for the growing number of autistic kids.

But Dr. Nanette Auriemma, a doctor with the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Centerin Phoenix who has treated more than 200 Gulf War Syndrome patients for more than two years, is doubtful thimerisol is to blame.

Of all the studies looking for a cause, not one of them has pointed to thimerisol, she said. Instead, environmental toxins are the likely cause, she added.

"The problem is that most of these cases are just vague symptoms," Auriemma said.

Rather than trying to treat the varied symptoms, Auriemma and other doctors refer patients to specialists for individual health problems after adding them to a national registry of veterans with the syndrome.

More research is needed, she said, to find a source for the illnesses.

"I know that feeling of desperation that they get," Auriemma said of her patients. "It's very frustrating for the patients and the doctors when the tests keep coming back normal."

Recently, researchers found a link between Vietnam soldiers exposed to herbicides such as Agent Orange and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Some believe chemical exposure in the gulf may someday be linked to cancer the same way.

Now a commercial pilot, Schmuck said he overcame the syndrome by having several mercury fillings replaced in his teeth and undergoing a controversial process known as chelation to remove heavy metals, namely mercury, from his body.
"This mercury had obviously gotten to my brain," he said. "They (doctors) have been trying to say it's all in our heads, and I do believe it's in our heads. I felt like somebody had poisoned me."
After regaining weight, strength and energy, Schmuck got his pilot's license reinstated.
But he worries about troops headed to the gulf for a possible war in Iraq.
"All you can do is ask for thimerisol-free (vaccines) if you're due for multiple vaccines," he said.
Other veterans share Schmuck's concerns about another crop of vets returning home ill after the Iraq conflict is over.
"What I seem to be hearing from Persian Gulf vets is that they're very concerned for the people going over there now," Auriemma said.