Virginia Tech and Lead Poisoning from the active shooter event
October 3rd, 2019“……On April 16, 2007, Goddard was in French class at Virginia Tech when he was shot four times……One bullet pierced his shoulder and then exited. But three other bullets shattered into tiny pieces in his body, and doctors said it was too risky to remove them…..Goddard is suffering from lead poisoning. At one point, his levels were seven times higher than what’s considered safe….”The short term symptoms are hard to recognize — things like fatigue, irritability, memory loss. stomach pain,” Goddard said. “At the time when I learned about this, I was in grad school, I had a two-year-old, was about to have another one, and was trying to find a job. A lot of those things going on in my life could have caused those things.”
His mother who encouraged him to get a blood test after she read an article about the lasting impact of lead ammunition in shooting survivors.
Since his diagnosis, Goddard has had hip surgery to remove more bullet fragments, and he’s tried Chelation therapy to clear the toxic metal from his body.
“I tried it for a month,” he said. “I had to take like 30 pills a day, every day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
The treatment worked, but Goddard struggled to take so many pills every day. As soon as he stopped taking the pills, the lead in his body elevated to dangerous levels again, although they aren’t as high as before he tried the therapy…..”