Flint Water Crisis: Doctor Checked With City Before Allowing Lead Test For Children

A clip from the GMO Free News 1+hour interview session with mother LeeAnne Walters regarding the Flint Water Crisis and her children’s health.

“It is too late for my (4-year old) son, but I will not stand by and let this happen to another innocent child in Flint.” LeeAnne Walters, MDEQ Mistakes and Deception Created the Flint Water Crisis

Transcript (edited for clarity)

LeeAnne Walters: I had to fight with my son’s pediatrician to get the testing to begin with.

Jack Olmsted, Videoblogging 206/GMO Free News: What was the fight over?

LeeAnne: The letter they (City of Flint, population 100,000) gave us for the TTHMs [trihalomethanes]. It said that if you have a compromised immune system you should talk to your doctor.

So, I went in and spoke with his pediatrician and the pediatrician wrote me a note saying that because of his compromised immune system that he couldn’t consume the water.

Every time he would have contact with the water he would break out in these horrible, just horrific rashes. To the point, where he had to have Benadryl before every bath because of how severely he was breaking out .

I took a video to show the doctor what his skin looked like before bath and after bath. You could actually see a water line across his stomach from the waist down from being submerged in the water. So. then the doctor wrote me a note saying that Gavin breaks out every time he comes in contact with the water.

I went back in for our next visit, after the city decided, they wanted to start doing lead and copper tests because of the discoloration.

I walked in and the doctor just started going off on me about having an agenda. He had been in contact with the City. What he was being told by the City was completely different from what I was telling him. And he was NOT going to do anything in regards to my children….when it came to the water.

I said, “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa! Wait a second. Why are you talking to the City? I didn’t give you permission for that”. He had a bunch of documents in his hand. Everything that I tried to hand him he refused to take from me.

He refused to have my kids tested for lead and copper at this point.

About two weeks later, I got my lead/copper test back from the City. I got a frantic phone call from Mike Glasgow, with the water department, telling me to make sure that my kids were NOT drinking this water. If I was making juice, to make sure that I was not mixing their juice with this water. To make sure they were not consuming the water.

Because my lead level was at 104 parts per billion [ppb] and they’ve never seen a lead level that high in the City and that is concerning for them because 15 ppb is the max according to the EPA.

At that point, I called the doctor’s office, and said, “Hey, I just found out that I just had this test…it is at 104 ppb. I need lab slips for my kids today”.

I was told, “I’m sorry you need to bring that report down to us and we need to wait to hear from the City before we move forward.”

So, I went down to the water department and got a copy… and went to the doctor’s office and said, “OK here it is. Give me my lab slips…..Now! Either you are going to order the lab slips today or you are going to give me a letter telling me why you’re waiting to hear from the City before you treat my children”.

I was there for an hour and a half and then the City actually emailed my doctor and CC’d me into it…and when that happened… minutes later, I had the lab slips for my kids.

I couldn’t figure out where they [City] played into this. Like why this was such a big deal?

I figured out that the emergency manager’s assistant was actually [Jerry] Ambrose’s assistant and that is the wife of my pediatrician. So, there’s the link between the pediatrician and the City of Flint. When I made that information public, she got moved over….

Jack: Who got moved over?

The emergency manager’s assistant.

Jack:. But, the doctor, there were no repercussions on the doctor? Is this normal procedure that the doctor confers with the City and waits for the City to have a seal of approval before they give parents laps slips?

LeeAnne: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

We actually ended up going to a dermatologist outside of the City and that was the one that finally ran the tests for us. The test showed that my son had lead poisoning and anemia from the lead poisoning.

Jack: Is there anybody that is bringing this doctor to task for what he did at this point in time or do they pretend like it never happened?

LeeAnne: It’s a work in progress. It is something that we are working on. It wasn’t just my family…for the longest time the doctors in the City would tell you, “Yes, I believe that it’s the water, but we are not allowed to put anything in writing.” I can’t tell you how many people told us that.

Jack: Who told the doctors they were not allowed to put something in writing? Who is the grand authority over the doctors? I thought that their first responsibility was the care to their patients?

LeeAnne: That is the million dollar question. Nobody knows that…

Jack: They [City] basically had a gag order specifically on doing lead tests?

LeeAnne: Actually, it was on people that were having any issues from the water.

Jack: It sounds almost like a conspiracy, How can you get doctors to agree to that?

LeeAnne: I don’t no? I’m not one of those people. I’m one of those people that would not shut up. So, I can’t answer that for you.

Jack: It sounds like something out of a “B” movie that would never happen in real life. I mean we’re talking about doctors. They are educated. They went to medical school. They have a practice. They are seeing patients and then they are given a directive, “you can’t do this,” and everybody complies. What are they [City] going to do? Take away their medical license? There were zero doctors to stand up to this advisory?

LeeAnne: Well, part of the problem were the lies from the MDEQ [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] and from the City of Flint on the water. And the fact that all the testing that was coming back from the EPA was saying that we [City of Flint] were in compliance.

So, at this point, we were considered crazy whack-jobs, we didn’t know what we were talking about. We were trouble makers.

And you know everything (City/EPA tests) was coming back normal.

At that point, it was…we have to prove that there is a problem. They were not listening to us and that is when I started talking with Miguel Del Toral at the EPA. (Watch Full Interview)

Flint Water Crisis YouTube Playlist

A Deeper Dive Into LeeAnne’s Story

MDEQ e-mails show stunning indifference to Flint peril
Interview Clip: Flint Family Files Federal Lawsuit Over Failing Health Due To Tap Water
Hazardous Waste-levels of Lead found in a Flint household’s water
GMO Free News Facebook Event Page: Interview with LeeAnne Walters

Jack Olmsted