Viet Nam vet in medical limbo

Waiting.

Waiting becomes an art form for service men and women who are on active duty.

You can wait while reading a book, watching TV or shooting the breeze. Your wait for orders, for chow, for showers, you work while you wait for KP to be over.

There is a form of waiting that veterans share with civilians.

Waiting for the results of medical tests is a universal experience.

This form of waiting may be the cruelest of all.

Worry creeps in no matter what you do to distract yourself.

When the results will reveal if you are facing paralysis and blindness, well, that kind of worry is pretty intense.

That is what Jerry Leverett is dealing with this St. Patrick's Day.

The VA appointed nerve specialist in St. Louis did tests involving a myelogram yesterday and the results of that test will give insight into Jerry's future health. But that is five days from now.

Five days is an eternity if it is your body being scrutinized.

The website "Web M.D." defines the test as follows.

"A myelogram uses X-rays and a special dye called contrast material to make pictures of the bones and the fluid-filled space (subarachnoid space) between the bones in your spine (spinal canal). A myelogram may be done to find a tumor, an infection, problems with the spine such as a herniated disc, or narrowing of the spinal canal caused by arthritis."

Leverett, an Army vet from the Viet Nam era, has so much shrapnel - metal shards - in his body that he cannot endure the now standard MRI. The metal would heat up. No doctor can order an order an MRI for Leverett.

A Viet Cong bomb maker in the far northern region of South Viet Nam made a particularly nasty improvised anti-personnel bomb for Leverett and seven of his squad members. They were humping the M-60 machine gun for their unit. An M-60 can shoot 100 rounds in 45 seconds.

Seven - eight counting Leverett - ground pounding soldiers were injured when the mine exploded- waist high. Two soldiers - draftees like Leverett - died pretty quickly. The others have coped with their injuries since July of 1968.

Leverett spent most of his time in the bush since arriving in the country in time for the Tet Offensive in January of 1968.

What being in the bush means is bring your own toilet paper. Write home for more. Sleep in a hole you just dug. January to July.

The explosion of the mine took out Leverett's ear drums.

"I remember a flash of light and then a noise so loud it hurt. Next thing, when I came to, a buddy was asking me where to put a 'Kotex' bandage to stop the bleeding," he said.

"I told him to shove it anywhere to stop the blood. My right side was a mess."

A Huey flew him to a base hospital on the outside of the cabin, his stretcher strapped to the struts.

The base hospital sedated him and he woke up six days later. He was then sent to Japan where he endured eight operations, some involving major skin grafts. He was returned to a VA hospital in Colorado, a big hospital on 100 acres complete with tunnels connecting each building.

Leverett was released eight months later and spent six months tending the unit mascot, a jackass at Ft. Carson. Parade duty was regular.

"I had to wash and polish that jackass. The hooves had to shine," he said.

Leaving his 21-month tour with the Army behind, Jerry returned to work in Pontiac, Mich., for a General Motors supplier. He moved home to the Stonefort area and was treated by the VA in Chicago until being assigned to the Marion hospital in 1972.

He has been treated there since then.

He secured a job with Peabody Energy and retired after 17 1/2 years in both underground and in strip mines. He was injured August 11, 1992, while working underground for Peabody. That is why and when he retired.

Recently he began a series of treatments for a tumor in his eye. He received a series of shots to his eye since biopsies of the eye are not possible. After four of these shots he began losing his balance, falling and injuring himself. Wanting to rule out the possibility of the shots being the cause of this complication, he ceased that treatment. The VA has referred him to a nerve specialist in St. Louis who ordered the myelogram. The possibility that blockage has occurred in his spine and is effecting his nerves is real. Paralysis is a possibility but so is blindness if he leaves his eye treatments for good.

So Jerry and his wife wait in their home in Stonefort.

Five days from now they will know more.