Constrictive Bronchiolitis After Exposure to Burn Pits

Full Article at: Army want to hide soldiers with constrictive bronchiolitis

August 4, 2010 by Michael Leon

Constrictive bronchiolitis

- “I think this is a way to get control of an issue,” Dr. Miller said. “They can control the discussion by keeping it internal.” Miller said he already had a bad taste in his mouth after a 32-page training letter came out from the Veterans Affairs Department detailing environmental concerns — with his findings of constrictive bronchiolitis removed from the original draft after it was reviewed by military officials“.

By Kelly Kennedy in the Army Times

A civilian doctor who diagnosed more than 50 soldiers with constrictive bronchiolitis after they were exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan has been told that Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio will handle his patients from Fort Campbell, Ky., from now on.

Dr. Robert Miller, associate professor of allergy, pulmonary and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said he worries handing the cases over to the Army means the problem will disappear from public view.

“I think this is a way to get control of an issue,” Miller said. “They can control the discussion by keeping it internal.” But Col. Lisa Zacher, pulmonary consultant to the Army surgeon general, said she greatly admires Miller’s work, and that the change came purely for business reasons.

“I think we’re trying to be open,” she said. “We’re trying to be transparent. It’s no reflection on his work — to me, it’s just a business decision.” In 2003, Fort Campbell soldiers began returning home from Iraq complaining of shortness of breath and saying they could no longer run fast enough to pass their physical fitness tests. But pulmonary-function tests came back normal, as did scans, X-rays and exercise tests.

Doctors at Fort Campbell sent the soldiers to Miller to try to solve the mystery. He decided to perform lung biopsies — an inpatient operation that involves surgery to pull out small pieces of the lungs.

All but a few soldiers came back with diagnoses of constrictive bronchiolitis, a rare disease that causes the lung’s smallest airways to narrow. It can be diagnosed only through biopsy."