Sandra Cooper remembers the exact date her life started to turn upside down: Sept. 25, 2003.
She'd gotten home from her job as an art teacher at Garden Spot High School around 4 p.m. that day. Her husband, Gene, who was on shift work at Armstrong World Industries floor plant, arrived home a short time later. She heard him coming. "I could hear the coughing even before he came up the sidewalk," Sandra Cooper said. "I've never heard anybody cough like that."  His eyes were watering, he had a blinding headache and he was screaming in between hacks. There'd been a spill at work, he told his wife. Chemicals. He had to help clean it up.The cough lasted for days. Finally, more than a week later, Gene Cooper agreed to go to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics. Still, the cough persisted, but Sandra Cooper didn't think too much of it; her husband had always had sinus problems. But by Thanksgiving, Gene Cooper's behavior had noticeably changed. He'd forget names, he started missing work — something he'd never done before. When the plant closed between Christmas and New Year's, he argued with Sandy, insisting he was scheduled to work. When she got out the calendar to prove her point, he began to cry. Something was wrong. Within five months, Gene Cooper was on disability, unable to work. Today, he's in a Dallastown nursing home, his brain ravaged by toxic encephalopathy, a degenerative neurological disorder resembling Parkinson's disease.... |
