Lawsuits Filed Alleging Camp Lejeune Water Caused Birth Defects

Marine families are devastated to learn that the Marine Corp and Navy may may be responsible for the injuries and death of their children

Monday, September 5, 2022 - Thousands of young military families trusted that the Marine Corps and Navy would provide them with adequate housing and safe drinking water. During the period from 1953 to 1987, young mothers and pregnant women, cooked with and bathed themselves and their infant children in water supplied to their homes by two main water treatment plants. These two plants were known to be contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals from several sources and drinking the water could cause cancer. As a result, hundreds, maybe thousands of babies were born with one serious birth defect or another. Others were born and quickly diagnosed with childhood leukemia, a death sentence for most. Six Camp Lejeune birth defect lawsuits were filed the other day under the newly-enacted Camp Lejeune Justice Act by parents alleging their child's serious birth defect was a result of the Navy and Marine Corps negligence, carelessness, and recklessness for failing to warn them the water was contaminated. According to AboutLawsuits.com, "The lawsuit alleges Camp Lejeune water caused birth defects for children of service member exposed in utero when their mothers consumed contaminated water while living on the military base. The joint complaint filed last week was brought on behalf of Cathlene Brewer, Jeffrey Hopkins, James T. Maxwell, Sherry A. Miller, and Gena M. Parkhurst, all of whom say they were conceived or born at Camp Lejeune, and developed serious birth defects from water contaminants on the base." The joint lawsuit was filed alleging that drinking the Camp Lejeune tap water directly cause their birth defects while in utero. The lawsuit goes on to cite what others have identified as "Baby Heaven" a section of the local cemetery that is populated with hundreds of infant deaths.

Plaintiffs have had children born with blindness, kidney defects, spinal disorders, as well as low weight at birth, and malformed hips and weak bones. The National Institute of Health (NIH) reported that early in the 1980s the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point water-treatment plants, suppliers of water to enlisted-family housing, unmarried service personnel barracks, administrative offices, schools, child care facilities, and recreational areas," were tested and found to contain trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene, two carcinogenic industrial solvents. A local business, ABC Dry Cleaners is accused of dumping their dry cleaning waste into a nearby storm drain that leached into the area's water table as early as 1953 and continued for more than a decade. The Marines and Navy, along with the Veterans Administration (VA) have been trying to get away with failing to warn the base's population of the findings for decades and have denied thousands of claims made by Marines with cancer, surviving loved ones of those who died, and the parents of children that have died. The newly enacted law Honoring Our Pact Act includes the Camp Lejeune Justice Act that removes the roadblocks that prevented injured US Marines from seeking justice in a court of law through filing a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit. Legal experts think that upwards of a quarter of a million lawsuits may be registered by people who have been injured by or lost a loved one from drinking Camp Lejeune water.

Information provided by CampLejeuneJusticeActClaim.com, a website devoted to providing news about Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claim, including a free no-cost, no-obligation Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claim.