Sometimes, Kentucky, one person’s pursuit of the truth can lead to justice for multitudes. Take the story of Frank D. Rochelle, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, as reported by Martha Quillin in The News & Observer.
Rochelle was 20 years old when he was drafted into the Army in 1968. As a private assigned to Fort Lee in Virginia, he saw posted notices asking for volunteers to test new military uniforms and equipment. Rochelle volunteered and was sent to Maryland’s Edgewood Arsenal, where he signed up to test therapeutic drugs. The participants were promised that they would not be harmed, the drugs were risk free, and the volunteers would be given normal doses.
In one Army drug experiment, he says, he got one breath of an aerosol chemical so potent that he immediately had trouble breathing and seeing. He was dizzy, nauseated, and felt as if his legs were “falling through the floor.” He recalls being carried out of the room, and said, “I stayed high for two days.” During this time, he hallucinated that animals were coming out of the walls, and he thought that his freckles were bugs moving under his skin; he tried to cut them out with a razor.
Before Rochelle left Edgewood, he was told to never discuss the experiences he had there with anyone.
A few years ago, Rochelle was having health and psychological problems he couldn’t explain. When he tried to figure out why, he remembered the testing and realized he had no idea what drugs he had been given.
He eventually got his military medical records and was able to determine which drugs may have been responsible for his condition. And next summer, he and possibly thousands of others will seek justice together in the District Court in San Francisco.
If you believe you should pursue a class action lawsuit in Kentucky, call the Louisville class action attorneys at Gray and White Law at 502-210-8942 or toll free at 888-450-4456 and set up a FREE, no-obligation, confidential consultation.