East Oregonian
October 28, 2003

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

Army doctor takes stand

By WILLIAM McCALL Associated Press


PORTLAND — While attorneys argued over legal responsibility for any chemical weapons leak, an Army doctor testified Monday the medical response at the Umatilla Chemical Depot depended on the level of the emergency and whoever could handle it first.

Maj. Jose Ortiz repeatedly rejected hypothetical scenarios about whether the Army or a private contractor should first respond to a chemical leak as too simplistic or highly unlikely.

He was questioned by attorney James McCandlish, who is representing dozens of construction workers who claim they suffered sarin gas poisoning at the Army’s chemical weapons depot in eastern Oregon in 1999.

The workers were employees of Raytheon Co., the military contractor hired to build an incinerator to destroy nearly 4,000 tons of chemical weapons stored at the depot near Hermiston.

The workers claim the government was negligent for not responding more quickly to any threat of a chemical weapons leak, leaving Raytheon to manage care for dozens of construction workers complaining of symptoms that ranged from trouble breathing to intense chest pain and vomiting.

McCandlish noted that, in one of the documents submitted as evidence in the case, Ortiz had been critical of the emergency response.

In the document, Ortiz said: “There were some definite mistakes made in the handling of this event medically, namely the timeliness of medical transfer of severely affected patients, triage and decontamination, and communication to the (depot) operations center that left much to be desired.”

On the stand Monday, Ortiz backtracked, saying he would not have used the word “mistakes” today to describe the way the emergency was handled in 1999. His criticism was mostly about minor procedures, he said.

“Could this have been done better? Yes, it could have been done better, that’s all I’m saying there,” Ortiz said.

McCandlish noted another doctor, Joseph Gifford, kept a chart on himself after the workers began arriving for treatment at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, listing dizziness, blurred vision, chest pains, a “foul taste” and blistering — all possible signs of mild to moderate secondary exposure to chemical agents.

But Ortiz responded the mild symptoms were inconclusive by themselves and could have resulted from many other causes.

McCandlish asked Ortiz to fill out a chart outlining responsibility for various medical emergencies but Ortiz refused, saying the chart presented “very poor examples” that were unlikely, unrealistic and “very simplistic.”

U.S. District Judge Dennis Hubel, who is hearing the case without a jury, instructed Ortiz to respond to McCandlish’s questions about the hypothetical situations but told the doctor he could comment on whether he thought they were unlikely or unrealistic.

Henry Miller, a Department of Justice attorney, repeatedly objected to the questioning, drawing a sharp warning from Hubel.

“What you’re doing with your objections is alerting the witness, saying ‘Whoa, this may be a trick question,”’ Hubel told Miller.

“But the doctor has repeatedly shown he’s very capable of taking care of himself,” the judge said. “He doesn’t need to be warned that a question may be misleading.”

The trial is expected to conclude by Wednesday.