A soldier's cancer

(11/15/07 -- JOHNSTON COUNTY) (WTVD) -- Greg Gaines says he brought more than nightmares and battle scars home with him. He believes he got cancer there too, and he says he's not the only one.

Gaines talks about his time in the war zone, "This is a picture of our sleeping quarters that actually got hit by a mortar that came right through the roof. We got hit on a couple of occasions from RPG's. At least eight or nine of my own company's vehicles that got hit with IEDs, small arms fire constantly."

During his 10 months in Iraq, Gaines, who lives in Johnston County, says he saw lots of combat and lots of chemicals. "There was one time, we saw it coming from a distance it was a big cloud of yellow smoke that looked like a dust storm at first then it just kept on getting closer and closer and you can definitely tell it was a concentrated yellow cloud. I was sick quite a few times while I was there," Gaines said.

And when he came home, Gaines says he had a bizarre bug bite that wouldn't go away.

"That's the scar from the sand flea that bit me while I was in Iraq," he said. "I was receiving treatment for that for a couple of months and my lymph nodes on my left side were all swollen. I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. When they did further testing and found out that it was actually in late stage four, then the doctor told me that if they didn't find it now, I would've been just a couple weeks away of calling it a day."

Gaines wife, Melissa, described her reaction after hearing the news, "I remember I was at work and I just started bawling, I actually had to leave work."

Gaines and his wife say the chemo took its toll.

"In this picture, I was about 60 pounds lighter than I normally am," he explained.

He immediately flashed back to Iraq after looking at the photo.

"Some of the warehouses that we'd go into contained large, approximately 8-foot by 3-foot wide coffins that when we opened them up, there was various things inside -- everything from AK-47s still in their wrapping to vials of white powder substance undetermined what exactly that was."

Gaines says he's not the only one who was diagnosed with cancer. "Four of us from my unit that went including myself, of the three others, two of them that I know of came down with some type of systemic cancer."

Eyewitness News Reporter Shae Crisson asked Gaines if he something he was exposed to may have caused his cancer.

"I think it's a good possibility," said Gaines.

Eyewitness News asked Doctor Mohamed Abou-Donia, a cancer biology professor at Duke, if it stands out to him that three out of four men develop cancer.

Dr. Abou-Donia said, "It's clear that it can't be just a coincidence and it is not a genetic factor." Doctor Abou-Donia studied Gulf War Syndrome in the 90s and found that the stress of war weakened soldiers' immune systems. He says it could be happening again.

"In this case, it seems that it most likely to be exposure to some kind of chemicals in addition to stress that the soldiers became very susceptible and developed the cancer," Dr. Abou-Donia said.

However, Gaines says the VA isn't saying that. The hospital believes the cause of his cancer is undeterminable.

Gaines filed for disability pay in April 2005. His claims have been denied twice because the VA says his cancer was diagnosed more than a year after his discharge. The VA also says there's no evidence his cancer was caused by his service.

Gaines says he has no history of cancer in his family and said he had no signs of symptoms or diagnosis of cancer or pre-cancer cells before he entered the military.

He also said he would not have been allowed in the military if he had cancer. "It would have been found on the pre-deployment status," Gaines said. "They do very extensive medical, you know, check for everything, you know? Not even just medical but dental. If you have a cavity you won't be deployed," Gaines told Eyewitness News.

When Eyewitness News contacted the VA about Gaines' concerns, we were told our government won't even begin studying what types of chemicals soldiers have been and could currently be exposed to until the war in Iraq is over. It literally will take an act of Congress to deem that a study is necessary. It would take years beyond that to determine what types of health effects any exposure may cause.

It took decades after Vietnam for the VA to conclude that Agent Orange caused cancer in soldiers and birth defects in their children. Disability claims are still being paid today for that.

According to Dr. Abou-Donia, wars equate health problems. "If you look at the history of wars, almost in every war there have always been problems with soldiers after they come back from war," Dr. Abou-Donia said.

He also says chemical exposure changes a person's DNA and can effect generations. Dr. Abou-Donia feels the VA shouldn't wait to find out if soldiers' service made them sick.

"Sometimes it's difficult to determine, but if there is a doubt, let's just take care of our soldiers because they went to die for us and they were lucky to come back", Dr. Abou-Donia said.

But Gaines doesn't feel lucky. He said, "I really could care less about what size check they send me, I just want them to recognize the fact this did happen."

His wife, is equally upset, "For them to turn their backs on someone who has gone through so much, who is so adamant about protecting the country, taking care of the country, to not even get a you know, okay fine, you did this, this happened, that these are things that happened because you helped the country, it is definitely a slap in the face," Melissa said.

The VA points out that even though they're not even close to studying the chemicals soldiers have been exposed to in Iraq, those soldiers can continue to appeal and refile denied claims.

One bit of solace for Gaines, his cancer is in remission.

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