Stars and Stripes: Army Sergeant Who Died
Following Shots Told Sister: ‘Don’t Let This Go!’
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Sgt. Sandra L. Larson
Army Sergeant Who Died Following Shots Told Sister: ‘Don’t
Let This Go!’
Mar 9, 2001
Dave Eberhart
Stars and Stripes Veterans Affairs Editor
Since her sister died on June 14, 2000, after receiving six anthrax vaccine inoculations, Nancy Rugo has been on a mission to make the government accountable. She reached a milestone in her quest when she recently learned that Sgt. Sandra L. Larson’s death is the subject of a broad federal investigation.
The military is finally investigating her death as anthrax-related.
Nancy Rugo
“The military is finally investigating her death as anthrax-related,” Rugo told The Stars and Stripes March 7.
BioPort spokeswoman Kim Brennan Root told The Stars and Stripes Feb. 6 that Larson’s death “is being investigated by several organizations, including the FDA and the anthrax vaccine expert committee.”
“That is the first VAERS report filed by the military implicating the vaccine that we know of,” Root said, referring to the DoD’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The expert committee is a group of civilian physicians that reviews VAERS reports.
The death of Larson, a 32-year-old Army sergeant, was a focus of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspection last year of BioPort, Inc., the Pentagon’s sole manufacturer of anthrax vaccine.
BioPort “has not reported the death to FDA in a 15-day report. The firm has not conducted an investigation [of the death],” said the FDA report.
Rugo told the House Government Reform Committee last year that during her sister’s fatal illness, “she made it clear to me to do whatever I can on her behalf if ‘something were to happen.’ She frantically began researching the causes of her condition and started to suspect a vaccine connection. As her condition worsened, she communicated some of her discoveries, and she told me emphatically, ‘Don’t let this go.’”
‘Enjoyed the Military’
Larson, who completed basic training in 1995, “immediately enjoyed the military” and hoped eventually to study medicine using the GI Bill.
I will never forget the day she called me with the news of
her daughter and having a strange feeling overcome me that I just
knew that someday I would be raising this little girl.
Nancy Rugo
At Fort Campbell, Ky., in February 1997, Larson gave birth to a second daughter. “I will never forget the day she called me with the news of her daughter and having a strange feeling overcome me that I just knew that someday I would be raising this little girl,” Rugo said.
In September 1998, Larson began the Pentagon’s 18-month anthrax vaccination inoculation program (AVIP) while stationed at Camp Stanley, South Korea, receiving four of the required six shots, all from BioPort’s lot 17, Rugo said.
Lot 17 reportedly was dispensed at Dover Air Force Base, Del., where many cases of reactions to the shots have been tracked.
In January 1999, Larson was granted a two-week leave and returned to Spokane, Wash., to visit her sister.
“I immediately noticed changes in her personality, mainly noting she seemed quite exhausted,” Rugo said. “She shared with me how tired she was—assuming her condition was related to her work duties and the exercise programs she had undergone. I remember coming home from work and she would be fast asleep in bed, and I thought she just needed to catch up on her rest.
“She had rashes on her arms at that time and told me she thought it was her nerves. While in Korea, she also developed numbness in her arms and was evaluated for what doctors thought might be carpal tunnel syndrome.”
Didn’t Object to Shots
According to Rugo, her sister never objected to the shots in Korea. “She went back to Korea, unhappy this time as she did not like leaving her daughter and was afraid she would not have the energy to pass the PE [physical fitness] test she would have to take on her return.”
In October 1999, Larson was ordered to relocate to Fort Riley, Kan. On March 8, 2000, Larson received her 6th and final anthrax shot, this time from lot 31.
“As we were in constant contact, I was to hear about more rashes she had noticed on her arms and legs, just like the rashes I noticed 15 months ago with previous shots,” said Rugo.
She was feeling like she was ‘a bad mother’ because
she was again so very tired and had no energy to do things with
her little girl.
Nancy Rugo
“She was feeling like she was ‘a bad mother’ because she was again so very tired and had no energy to do things with her little girl. In fact, she had expressed this with military personnel, feeling like she was maybe working too hard.”
On April 7, 2000, four weeks after her last shot, Larson called her sister.
“She was not feeling well at all,” Rugo said. “This time she mentioned she had additional numerous rashes on her arms and legs. She was extremely tired and was going to go to the military clinic because she started vaginal bleeding that was ‘pouring’ out of her.”
At the Fort Riley clinic, a test revealed that Larson had no blood platelets, which are needed to control bleeding. She was taken on a 2 ambulance drive to the Kansas City Medical Center, a civilian hospital.
Aplastic Anemia
On April 10, 2000, Larson was in the hospital’s intensive care unit. “The doctors had been doing many extreme tests—HIV, hepatitis—on her to try and figure out what was happening and concluded she had aplastic anemia,” Rugo said.
According to Rugo, infections started and Larson had to rely on blood transfusions every other day. On May 2, 2000, she was prepared to fly to Fort Lewis, Wash., for treatment at Madigan Army Medical Center. Enroute, the plane’s cockpit caught on fire, necessitating an emergency landing at Travis Air Force Base, Calif.
Travis “was not equipped to handle her condition and she had [a prolonged wait] for a much-needed blood transfusion,” said Rugo. Larson developed a lung infection and then was flown to Fort Lewis for emergency treatment.
“On May 20, 2000, I received a phone call from the [intensive care unit] physician,” Rugo said. “I was told I needed to come visit her right away, as they did not think she would live through the weekend. I called my parents in Montana and we all drove to Tacoma to be with her.
“We were told on our arrival that she would not make it through this. They would do all they could to keep fighting, but there was not a chance. The hospital had even started to transplant white donated blood cells directly into her lungs, which is an extreme therapy.
Coma, Death
“My sister...was on a ventilator and her whole body looked as if they had inflated her. She was so scared, yet in total denial about leaving, which made it difficult for me to talk to her about her last wishes.
“On June 12, 2000, Sandra went into a coma and I had to return again as I had to make a decision about pulling her off of life support. I sat down with a team of eight doctors...and told them...I would first like to have her oldest daughter to fly from Michigan as she wanted to say goodbye to her mother while she was still living.
When Larson’s daughter’s plane arrived at Tacoma, “it was after 2 a.m. on the 14th of June. Her mother had already left us two hours prior.”
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