A Medical Mystery, a Sailor's Death

[unhappycamper]

A Medical Mystery, a Sailor's Death
October 28, 2008
Virginian-Pilot

Patricia Thomson was a little intimidated when she arrived on the watch floor at the Naval Network Warfare Command.

The bubbly teenager, fresh out of boot camp and information technology school, was daunted at first by the hushed and darkened maritime operations center, a sort of mission control at the heart of the Navy's information network.

Even low-ranking Sailors like Thomson, a seaman, need a security clearance to work at the cyber warfare facility, which is staffed around the clock. Most enlisted Sailors who worked there were older, more experienced and higher-ranking. It was heady stuff for Patty, the youngest of seven kids.

As she left Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base to drive home to Missouri for Christmas last year, Patty seemed to have found her niche. She had a car, a paycheck, a room in the barracks she shared with her best friend, and dreams of someday becoming a chief petty officer.

Shortly after returning to Norfolk in late December, Patty became ill. What seemed at first to be an ordinary case of the flu quickly developed into a series of more troubling problems that mystified her doctors and alarmed her parents. She lost vision in one eye. She had trouble breathing. At one point, doctors suspected she'd had a stroke.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/a-medical-mystery-a-sailors-death.html?col=1186032310810

[patrice]

1. barrack's staff = Contractors . . . ?