Bluemerle

I ran across an August 2004 blog discussion at the link above about Burkett's famous vaguely-reported-on illness.

What really interested me was Burkett posted to the thread himself, and discussed his encephalitis in more detail that I have seen anywhere previously.

He also gives a version of the documents he claims to have spied in the trash can.

I don't see any reason to doubt the encephalitis as some of the posters there did, there is no medical basis to dispute his his self-described illness. The nature of the dispute with the military was about when and where it was contracted, and whether he was qualified to receive medical benefits.

Deinonychus antirrhopus: Update on Bill Burkett:

"Neither am I mistaken, nor lying about any of this. The paperwork is complete and was presented with the court case against three individuals (Goodwin, Meador and Taliaferro) along with documentation including a recorded telephone call with Dan Bartlett of the governor's staff and eight letters and three phone calls to the governor's office by my wife.

My doctors - who are three of the finest neurologists in the US simply say that the reason I am incredibly lucky is that once I began severe fevors, I self prescribed procaine penicillin g - from a veterinary source at one and one-half times the recommended doseage. Even with the massive doseage, it did not kill the disease organisms within my spine, but did provide nominal control

We were undere collection lawsuit from the local hospital for a previous back injury to a child and did not have insurance of any kind other than the medical care that I was supposed to receive due to my active duty status.

Whenever I was finally admitted to medical care at Brooke Army Medical hospital, the Army doctors were unable to get a clear picture other than central nervous system damage and symptomatic problems such as severe migraine headaches, an excessively large sinus mass, tremors, vertigo, tinitus and what was alter diagnosed as neuralgia. The mistake in short term treatment was that the army doctors did not do a spinal tap. After a year and a half of mistakes and no improvement, I was referred to Dr. Leroy of Dallas, one of the country's noted neurologists who presented testimony both in the court documents and to Department of Defense doctors and inspector generals investigators. From the spinal fluids he found a mid level infection of meningo encephalitis still present even after nearly two years.

Did I lie about Geroge W. Bush's records. No.

Of the files that I saw within the 15 gallon waste can were numerous documents which detailed why 1LT George Bush was grounded from flying including a two-page counseling statement signed by LTC Jerry Killian.

Mr. George Conn in no way refuted any portion of my illness or the base facts of my testimony. In fact, if you will read only one statement reported by the Boston Globe of a 45 minute interview, he said that he would have been surprised if this had happened. He tried to walk a very fine line because he was under considerable pressure on his defense department job in Germany. His wife was also under pressure on her job with a Dallas based law firm.

Mr. Conn and I communicate even today, by the way. I do not blame him for protecting his life, family and ability to support his daughter.
Posted by: Bill Burkett on August 14, 2004 04:27 PM"

I have to be careful because I am not privy to his medical records, and this is a person known to bend truth to suit his moods and purposes.

However, his brain infection could affect portions of the brain that would change his affect and personality. When active it could be associated with changes in mental status including paranoia and/or delusions. It could impair his judgement, or make it harder for him to control impulses.

His "nervous breakdowns" could have been caused by difficulty dealing with the sequelae of his illness, or a DIRECT result of his illness.

I am speculating, but I do think that his body is not the only thing ravaged by this insult to his brain and nervous system. I think his mental health has suffered as well. He may improve and deteriorate and improve and deteriorate over time.

I'm linking here for medical info on encephalitis. I will update with a layman's link and a much more exhaustive medical link, but that one is good for a start.


And here, you can read posts at a support site for caregivers and folks suffering the effects and after-effects of encephalitis.