Documenting the BP Disaster in the Gulf of Toxico

Florida Oil Spill Law

… “What is your research going to do for a guy like me that’s sitting at home dying every day?” Clayton Matherne, a 35-year-old Bayou Blue resident, asked National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Director Linda Birnbaum at a meeting Wednesday in Montegut. …

Matherne said he believes the study may be too little, too late for him. He said he was diagnosed with benzene poisoning after he worked skimming oil on the Gulf in May and has since suffered increasingly severe health effects.

“They found out my lungs almost completely shut down,” he said. “I cough up chunks of meat. Black stuff comes out of my nose and ears. I’ve lost half my eyesight.”

He also has neurological problems, he said, including seizures. Due to his illness, Matherne said he can no longer work, and medical bills and household expenses consumed small legal settlement he received. He and his wife, who care for their two grandchildren have lost their house and depend on help from charity organizations to survive. Matherne said he can’t afford some of the medicines and care doctors have recommended.

Read the report here.

Related Posts:

• “I have nowhere left to turn”: BP refuses claim of “gravely ill” cleanup worker — “Can never recover money for medical bills and other expenses”
• BP crew member diagnosed with “benzene poisoning” — “Paw Paw why you gonna die?” asks crying 5 year old (VIDEO)
• Former oil field worker: “Could smell the Benzene coming up” into Mobile Bay — “Unbelievable headaches” and “a new rash… on my chest”
• Fisherman: “Still feeling terrible… I’m about to go to the doctor” — “Diarrhea has been real bad… day before yesterday, I was coughing up white foam with brown spots”
• Two officials from different Florida counties report “what looks like ‘a congealed GLOB of VASELINE’ that is HOVERING just offshore”