I am a born and raised Southern Girl from the Gulf. Born in Louisiana spent the first 4 years of my 37 years in Gretna, Louisiana. My daddy and all the men on his side of the family were all hard working offshore men. Now days my dad works overseas and I worry about him daily. He used to work out in once was a safe Gulf of Mexico.
My family and I moved and built a house here in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi right around 1978 or so. I grew up here once beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast. I have watched Casinos and the Tourism Industry grow. I have worked almost 15 years of my life in the same Casino as a restaurant server. After the first 10 yrs. I took a break moved up north for 5 years decided this was home so came back. Now living in Waveland,Mississippi. I live in my grandmothers once devastated home by Hurricane Katrina with my partner. We survived Katrina down here on the Coast. Ground Zero in fact, however I do not foresee us overcoming this Deep Water Horizon Catastrophe of 2010.
My first interest in this story was the poor men that lost their lives. Then I thought about my dad whom goes overseas for months at a time laying pipeline in dangerous parts of our world. Then work started suffering. We were making no money. We had just upgraded to a new fine dining steak and seafood restaurant and sales should of been on the up rise. But just the opposite. Sales were down. Our normal tourism was down. The wonderful site from our brand new windows was of a barge and some boom watching and waiting for oil. Sure we had the beautiful sunset overlooking that huge barge out back. So when I heard I could put in a claim I did.
I was paid....Fishermen constantly were denied. Strippers were paid... More fishermen DENIED!!! Laundry attendants were paid and my CO WORKERS all DENIED???? How??? Made no sense to me. So we organized protest. Met new friends. Amy Sullivan, Brad Mc.Donald,Terrie,Lynn and Don you all know who you are. We fought the best fight. We did interviews with our local newspapers as well as USA TODAY. My co worker and I went on WLOX TV 13 and did a 10 minute interview on how unfair this GCCF claims process was.
This all is leading up to how I personal became involved in all of this. I made the Coastal Justice Facebook page to get the word out about the protest we did but I am so thankful to this day that I did just that. I would not have the knowledge and friends that I have today. It feels good to think that if I can just educate at least one person a day about what is going on down here in the Gulf Region it makes it all worth while.
So as we fight with Feinberg and the whole claims process something personal has arose for me pertaining to all of this....
First of all one of my good friends husband also a friend of mine has been so very sick. He worked on the clean up crew on the skiffs calling in oil. I believe he has been misdiagnosed and he was actually tested today hopefully within the next 10 days they will know something and if it is what I think it is he can start detoxification.
Then on a extremely personal level here is my brief story. My partner and I went to Gulf Shores twice at summers end as well as to Destin,Florida once in first of October. Each mini vacation we stayed at least 4 days. In Destin we only walked the beach and briefly in the water. However in August and September we swam daily in the waters of Gulf Shores. All signs said beaches were safe. We trusted that.
My partner in August the first trip to Gulf Shore on our last night there started showing odd health signs. We had been swimming and just relaxing on the beach all day long. That night about 10pm we went down to the outside hotel pool located on the beach side. After about 5 to 10 minutes she got very lightheaded and passed out where I had to catch her and help her out of the pool sit her down before getting her upstairs to our room. We considered going to ER but she said she just needed sleep was probably just tired. So ok ....
We had 2 more mini trips after that...She still never felt just right...Finally home for good back to the real world in Oct she gradually went downhill. She had numerous symptoms. Hallucinations, Nausea out of no where...headaches and loss of leg functions here and there and lethargic quite often. She thought she was coming down with the flu. Her physician had in the mean time put her on a blood pressure med. So again we thought maybe her body was getting used to that. She had visited the ER at our local hospital with severe nausea and they did nothing and sent her home. I forget how long after that but in November she got much worse and ended up going to Slidell Memorial. They were awesome to her. Her blood pressure was about bottomed out, she was bleeding internally, Ulcer, erosion of the esophagus and then we found out her kidneys were shutting down. She was put in ICU for about 3 days and she came home on I believe day 5. At the time I did not think this could be related to the Chemicals and the Oil from being in the Gulf Waters so much.
I have had a uncontrollable bladder since the end of October. No clue where that came from. I have a referral to a urologist but they can not see me till the end of April.
Our plans as soon as we have the money is to get her tested as well as myself. I have done so much research on this and it still blows my mind of the media not covering this. I have decided that somehow I want to make a career out of this line of work just not sure what. I have decided to pursue the possibility of college or some other form of a training program. I want the public informed. This has become my passion and life goal. This is the Gulf Coast that I love. I moved back here and I'm not going anywhere!
Please be patient as I continue to update this site. Please feel free to please leave comments.
Thanks,
Laurie Gayle
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