Agent Orange key topic at vets conference

[unhappycamper]

Agent Orange key topic at vets conference
By Craig Smith - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Posted : Tuesday Aug 10, 2010 18:22:21 EDT

PITTSBURGH — Bobbie and Philip Morris have never heard their daughter speak.

Born with diseases that baffled her doctors, Dara Rae Morris has lived for 37 years in silence. Mentally and physically challenged, she has three leaks in her heart.

“She doesn’t say ‘I love you’ or ‘Mom and Dad,’ but she knows ...” Bobbie Morris said, her voice trailing off.

Dara Rae Morris spent the first 15 years of her life mostly hospitalized, undergoing open heart surgery and other procedures. During a hospital visit last fall, doctors found more leaks in her heart and told her parents they believe that fixing them would be too much for her to endure.

Bobbie and Philip Morris, a Vietnam veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange, a defoliant containing dioxin, were asked to prepare a living will for their daughter. They are among a growing number of parents connecting exposure to Agent Orange with the ailments affecting their children.

[saigon68]

1. Just look at Viet-Nam

They have many many children with birth defects from growing up in that chemical morass

[JustAnotherGen]

2. My father is convinced

That I have A.S. and that my brother's heart issues are due to his exposure in Vietnam. It's my understanding it gets into the DNA of the person exposed to it. We both also have had terrible allergic reactions all of our lives - where there has been no allergies in either side of our family previously. He's further convinced about my A.S. because my great grandfather ALSO developed it aside from his HLA-B27 gene. That great grandfather was an immigrant from France -- who had served in World War I and been exposed to chemicals while in the trenches.

Unfortunately, we'll never know.

And yes - my dad has the Agent Orange Spectrum of health issues and again . . . no history of those in our family before.