Bill Thompson, a retired Army staff sergeant who has severe lung damage as a result of inhaling toxic fumes from burn pits, has been denied full disability benefits.
According to an article published by Stars and Stripes, “The lungs Bill Thompson was born with told a gruesome, harrowing and unmistakable tale to Dr. Anthony Szema when he analyzed them and found the black spots, scarring, partially combusted jet fuel and metal inside…“There’s black spots that are burns, particles all over; there’s metal. It was all scarred,” said Szema, a pulmonologist and professor who studies toxic exposures and examined Thompson’s preserved lung tissue…Thompson is still alive, surviving on his second transplanted set of lungs. Yet the story burned into the veteran’s internal organs is not one that has been entirely convincing to the U.S. government.”
Relevant pages: Veterans Disability