LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — An industry once booming across the Silver State is now leading to several health defects for locals.
While many are now dealing with ailments from nuclear test sites, a little-known federal program is here to help.
WATCH| I'll introduce you to the program and some of the people it's helping:
“I am 68 years young," said Captain Burrell, who worked at a Tonopah nuclear test site. “I was a cook there. I did four years there.”
“Right now I’m 78," said Lawrence Gabriel, who worked at the Nevada Test Site. “I worked in the tunnels. You know, I worked 31 years out at the Nevada Test Site.”
Two different lives connected by one industry and one word: nuclear.
“There were thousands and thousands of people who worked at the test site, and in the 31 years that I worked out there, there were hundreds who worked in the tunnels," Gabriel said.
Once a booming industry with more than 1,000 nuclear tests in Nevada from 1951 to 1992 has now left many workers to deal with the health effects.
“I have COPD, I have an enlarged heart, I have an enlarged liver, I have enlarged kidneys, I have an enlarged prostate. I have gout, I have sleep apnea, and my body swells at times," Burrell said.
That wasn't even the full extent of the health issues he has faced.
A young chef at the time, Burrell now struggles just to get around.
Unfortunately, Gabriel also has a tough time moving along with several health issues of his own.
“My wife would have to wake me up maybe 9, 10, 12 times in the evening just because I would stop breathing," Gabriel said.
Both Gabriel and Burrell went years before diagnosing their health issues.
Gabriel says it took him 19 years after retiring before he found out what was wrong.
I asked him if he received any help or if he was just suffering during that timeframe.
“I didn’t get any help whatsoever until finally Nuclear Care Partners came on board. They really helped me," Gabriel said.
It's all thanks to the EEOICPA, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act.
This U.S. Department of Labor program is specifically designed to help Division of Energy atomic workers who suffered an ailment from their time working at a test site.
“Those workers were specifically targeted because of the asbestos, the silica dust they were exposed to," said Nuclear Care Partners Community Outreach Manager Raychelle Houston.
Here's how it all works:
First, you can visit this website for more information on the program. Here, you can also contact local medical providers that service your area and are affiliated with this program.
The medical provider can help you apply. They will also help you with a medical test, like a chest X-ray.
If the test shows there is damage you sustained specifically due to your exposure working at a nuclear test site, most commonly in the lungs or kidneys, then you will qualify for the program.
The only other qualification is that you must have worked at least 250 days on a test site. Dates of when you had to work vary between nuclear sites across our county.
Some even have current employees who can use this program.
Here's what you get if you qualify:
Firstly, there is compensation. You can get up to $400,000 tax free, depending on where you worked and what your site exposed you to.
However, if the person working at the test site dies, their family can get that same compensation.
There are also medical benefits.
“They are able to get up to 24-hour nursing and CNA care within their home," said Nuclear Care Partners Senior Clinical Director Autumn Bentley.
Services like doctor visits, medical tests, prescriptions, and any other care you need for that specific ailment will be covered cost-free for life.
Several companies work through this program, giving care to atomic workers, but locally, Monicos Pharmacy and Nuclear Care Partners are a few providing help.
Monicos Pharmacy is a resource where many of these clients get their free prescriptions from. Monicos Pharmacy also partners with Inspiration Health, the subscription health care service I told you about in early December.
WATCH| I tell you about a group trying to help Southern Nevadans with Medicaid changes:
Nuclear Care Partners operates in at least 22 states and has an office in Las Vegas near Jones Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.
"I'm very compassionate, and I love my patients, and I've just watched so many people go," Bentley said.
Bentley works directly with locals struggling.
The challenge, though, is that not a lot of people know about the help.
This program originally started in 2000 and began accepting claims in 2001.
Nuclear Care Partners tells me it's fully funded through 2070, so the money is there and care is attainable.
Nuclear Care Partners says they're helping hundreds, if not thousands.
However, according to data from the CDC, 15,000 workers were employed at the Nevada Test Site in the mid-1980s.
While that may be the location where most of the announced tests were conducted in the Silver State, there were several other nuclear sites.
So, the number of workers at those sites in Nevada alone could be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands who could be impacted and able to seek compensation.
This is not just for the workers on the front lines in the tunnels. Just like Burrell, chefs could be impacted too, as well bus drivers, delivery drivers, and so many others. As long as you worked at the site for 250 days.
Burrell says if it weren't for this program, there would be no way he could afford the help he is currently getting with this program.
So, Captain and Lawrence hope people in need will see this story and seek the help and compensation they qualify for.
“I didn’t think I’d be here, I thought I’d be dead and gone to be honest with you," Burrell said.
“I’m so amazed with how well they take care of you," Gabriel said.
