Laura Greenwood
My husband John Greenwood was born and raised in Alamogordo, New Mexico. John and I met in New Mexico, we married in 1982 and moved to my hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. John worked for Nueces County and for the State of Texas.
John was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 2008. The doctor removed 12 inches of his colon. Almost a year later, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer and his right kidney was removed. John began very aggressive chemotherapy at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston, Texas. By September 2010, John was cancer free. So, after surviving colon and kidney cancer, he decided to take the next step in his life and retire. Six months after retirement, the cancer metastasized to his liver, it was Stage 4 and terminal. Cancer is a terrible disease and when it attacks the liver then all you can do is fight for time. My husband and the love of my life lost his battle on June 20, 2012.
John was the 13th member in his family to die from cancer. His mother died from uterine cancer and his father died from complications of colon cancer. He lost aunts, uncles, cousins, and his brother-in-law. His sister had colon cancer is the only family member of that generation to survive. There is now a genetic factor involved where cancer is being passed down through generations. Two of his children have already had cancer. His son had colon cancer at 43 yrs. and his daughter had uterine cancer at 40 yrs. and she had to have a total hysterectomy.
John retired from the Texas Attorney General’s Office working under Greg Abbott where he was a Medicaid Fraud Investigator. Upon retirement, we moved to a home on a small acreage of land in Brady, Texas. John’s health insurance was Blue Cross Blue Shield with an 80/20 split where we had to pay 20% of all our health costs. John had two major surgery’s, scans, lab work, medication, doctor visits, blood transfusions, and chemotherapy treatments weekly that costs up to $100,000 for each treatment. In addition, there was traveling expenses. That 20% adds up rapidly causing enormous debit. It literally broke us. Our phone was cut off five times, our electricity was cut off four times and our vehicle was repossessed. I pawned and sold family jewelry and heirlooms just to get the electricity turned back on. When the cancer metastasized to his liver, the debt that we had previously incurred continued to add up. We got to the point where we could no longer afford a hotel, food and gas money on our trips to Houston. We would get up at 2:00am, pack a peanut butter sandwich and a bottle of water, leave Brady, Tx by 3:00am and drive 6 hours to Houston to MD Anderson Cancer Hospital. John would do lab work, see the doctor and have his chemotherapy treatment, then we would get in the car and drive 6 hrs. home arriving about midnight with a ¼ tank of gas and .87 cents in our pocket. The stress was unbearable.
John and I always knew that the cancer in his family was a result of the Trinity Test but because we were living in Texas, we didn’t know how to find others like us. I found the Tularosa Basin Downwinders after John passed away and learned that there were so many others who had similar stories and had suffered just like us. I have been working with Tina Cordova and the Tularosa Basin Downwinders for about 7 years to get compensation to help these families with their health care expenses caused by the Trinity Test. I meet people in Texas all the time that have ties to New Mexico and have similar stories. I think we would all be surprised at how many people here in Texas were once living, working or visiting in New Mexico who were exposed to radiation and now are suffering with cancer.
In 1990, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was passed by Congress to help the victims who lived in the area of the Nevada nuclear testing site who were exposed to radiation.
New Mexico was not included in those benefits even though they were the victims of the very first atomic bomb, the Trinity Test. According to U.S. Census records, there were 40,000 people living within 50 miles of ground zero. The government did not warn or evacuate these families before detonating the atomic bomb. Some ranches were just 12 miles away from “ground zero” and they were never warned. Most of these resident’s learned the truth about what happened to them when they saw a news reel that played weeks later at the movie theater announcing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.
Though my husband John was born and raised in NM, he served the State of Texas for 30 years.
If we had been able to have the same benefits as the Nevada Test Site victims, then it would have made a very difficult time in our lives a little less stressful and we could have just focused on John and what time we had left together. I will continue to fight as long as it takes to get the compensation that families like ours deserve.