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Victim's 911 call full of distrust and fear
© St. Petersburg Times, WASHINGTON -- In a chilling 911 call just hours before he died, a Washington mail sorter told a dispatcher that he suspected he had been exposed at work to an envelope containing lethal anthrax spores. Thomas Morris Jr. said he felt like he was "about to pass out" and that his symptoms fit "almost to the tee" a description of the disease distributed in a notice to postal employees. But Morris' supervisors had told him there was little reason to believe workers were in danger of contracting the disease, and his doctor advised him his illness was likely caused by a virus. Morris died Oct. 21, hours after being taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Two days after his death the case was confirmed as inhalation anthrax. Critics of the government's response to the anthrax discovery -- including postal union leaders and postal workers -- said the tape of Morris' phone call reinforced their belief that legitimate fears about workers' health and the safety of postal facilities went unheeded. While authorities moved swiftly to treat workers on Capitol Hill after an anthrax-laden letter was opened by an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D, critics said, the response to postal employees was slow and poorly coordinated. In Morris' call -- first reported by an NBC affiliate in Washington -- he told the 911 operator that he had been nearby when a co-worker handled an envelope filled with powder the previous Saturday. "I don't know anything. I don't know anything," Morris said after being asked by the dispatcher if he'd been told what was in the envelope. "I couldn't even find out if the stuff was or wasn't. I was told that it wasn't. But I have a tendency not to believe these people." Morris worked at the Brentwood distribution center, the Washington postal hub that processed the Daschle letter. Postal authorities said Wednesday that the envelope Morris referred to in his call was separate from the Daschle letter and was turned over to the FBI when it was first discovered. Deborah Willhite, a Postal Service vice president, said her agency had followed proper procedure. The letter was examined at an Army chemical weapons facility and tested negative for anthrax, she said. She said the cause of Morris' death was a "matter of an ongoing criminal investigation." Dr. Ivan Walks, the District of Columbia's chief health officer, said listening to the Morris call was "horrifying." But he said public health officials were operating on the best knowledge they had at the time of how anthrax spread. "When (Morris) is telling people "I think this is what's wrong' and everyone -- including his own doctor -- is telling him "No, that's not it' -- it just chills me," Walks said. "And he's not the only one who got that sort of a stiff arm." Walks said they first became aware that inhalation anthrax at Brentwood might be possible two days before Morris died, when one of his co-workers went to a Virginia hospital with suspicious symptoms. By the time health officials found out about Morris' death, provisions were already being made to treat thousands of employees. "No one was put aside because they weren't important or didn't work on Capitol Hill," said Walks, who noted that top federal and local officials felt safe enough to attend the Brentwood news conference. In the days after learning that anthrax had come through the busy Brentwood facility, top postal officials -- acting on the advice of federal and local health authorities -- offered assurances that Brentwood employees were in no danger from the Daschle letter. The distribution center was shut down the day Morris died -- six days after the Senate Hart Office Building was evacuated when the Daschle letter was opened.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
