A John Edwards trial lawyer. A cold hearted monster hidden beneath an orthodontic smile and designer clothes.
Posted on 05/31/2007 2:02:41 PM PDT by OldCorps
ATLANTA (AP) - The honeymooner quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis was identified Thursday as a 31-year-old Atlanta personal injury lawyer whose new father-in-law is a CDC microbiologist specializing in the spread of TB. Bob Cooksey would not comment on whether he reported his son-in-law, 31-year-old Andrew Speaker, to federal health authorities. He said only that he gave Speaker "fatherly advice" when he learned the young man had contracted the disease.
The CDC had no immediate comment.
"I'm hoping and praying that he's getting the proper treatment, that my daughter is holding up mentally and physically," Cooksey told The Associated Press. "Had I known that my daughter was in any risk, I would not allow her to travel."
Speaker said in a newspaper interview that he knew he had TB when he flew from Atlanta to Europe in mid-May for his wedding and honeymoon, but that he did not find out until he was already in Rome that it was an extensively drug-resistant strain considered especially dangerous.
Despite warnings from federal health officials not to board another long flight, he flew home for treatment, fearing he wouldn't survive if he didn't reach the U.S., he said.
He was quarantined May 25, after his return from his honeymoon, in the first such action taken by the federal government since 1963.
On Thursday, he was flown from Atlanta to Denver, accompanied by his wife and federal marshals, to be treated at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
He looked healthy and tan when he arrived, and "he said he still felt fine," hospital spokesman William Allstetter said. The chief of the hospital's infectious-disease division said that he is optimistic Speaker can be cured, because he is believed to be in the early stages of the disease.
Doctors planned to begin treating him immediately with two antibiotics, one oral and one intravenous. He also will undergo a test to evaluate how infectious he is and a CT scan and lung X-ray, Allstetter said.
Doctors hope to also determine where he contracted the disease, which has been found around the world and exists in pockets in Russia and Asia.
He will be kept in a special unit with a ventilation system to prevent the escape of germs. "He may not leave that room much for several weeks," Allstetter said.
Cooksey works in the CDC's mycobacteriology laboratory branch. He has co-authored papers on diabetes and infectious diseases, including TB. He recently co-authored a report on a bacteria outbreak in bone marrow transplant and oncology patients in a hospital water supply.
According to a biography posted on a Web site connected with Speaker's law firm, the young lawyer attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance, then attended University of Georgia's law school. He is in private practice with his father, Ted Speaker, an unsuccessful candidate for a judgeship in 2004.
Andrew Speaker recently moved from an upscale condominium complex in anticipation of his wedding, former neighbors said. He also wrote in an application to become a board member of his condo association that he was going to Vietnam for five weeks as part of the Rotary Club to act as an ambassador.
His wife, Sarah, is a third-law law student at Atlanta's Emory University.
"He's a great guy. Gregarious," said Pam Hood, a former neighbor. "He's a wonderful guy. Just a very, very pleasant man."
Health officials in North America and Europe are now trying to track down about 80 passengers who sat near him on the two trans-Atlantic flights, and they want passenger lists from four shorter flights he took while in Europe.
However, other passengers are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of TB bacteria in Speaker was low, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine.
Among those being tested are more than two dozen University of South Carolina Aiken students, school spokeswoman Jennifer Lake said. Two were apparently sitting near him, possibly in the same row, she said.
One of those students, Laney Wiggins, said she is awaiting her skin test results, expected Friday.
"I'm very nervous," Wiggins told The (Columbia) State newspaper. "It's kind of sad that this is overshadowing the wonderful time we had in Europe."
Speaker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he wasn't coughing and that doctors initially did not order him not to fly and only suggested he put off his long-planned wedding. "We headed off to Greece thinking everything's fine," he told the newspaper.
Dr. Charles Daley, head of infectious disease at National Jewish Hospital, said the hospital has treated two other patients with what appears to be the same strain of TB since 2000. He said the patients had improved enough to be released.
"With drug-resistant tuberculosis, it's quite a challenge to treat this," Daley told CNN. "The cure rate that's been reported in other places is very low. It's about 30 percent for XDR-TB."
"This is a different patient, though. We're told that this is very early in the course, and most of the time when we get patients that it's very extensive and very far advanced. So I think we're more optimistic," he said. "We're aiming for cure. We know it's an uphill battle, but we hope to get there."
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Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington; Mike Stobbe and Daniel Yee in Atlanta; and Colleen Slevin in Denver contributed to this report.
___
But, even I would know not to get on an airplane if I was diagnosed with TB and I am not exactly House, M.D.
I also think that the Father-in-law who "just happens" to work for CDC on TB is too odd. Something isn't right here.
Trial Lawyer goes into a bar after losing a particular tough case, slams down his brief case and screams at the top of his lungs, "All lawyers are a bunch of lying, cheating, unethical, bloodsuckers!"
A man down at the end of the bar screams back, "I deeply resent those remarks." Trial lawyer shouts back, "So you're a lawyer, huh."
Man screams back, "No, I'm a lying, cheating, unethical bloodsucker!"
Yep. I think the CDC is 1) trying to cover its tracks, 2) overreacting wildly now, as part of its efforts to obscure its previous underreaction. This poor guy is little more than a pawn in the whole thing. The father in law is obviously quite knowledgeable about this stuff, and wasn’t alarmed enough about his daughter running off on a honeymoon with this guy to sound the alarm and try to stop that from happening. Translation: the guy’s potential for transmission is very, very, very, very low (as in the people who sat next to him on the planes should be more worried about getting hit by lightning on a sunny day), and when he left on the trip there was even less reason to be alarmed, since his TB strain had not yet been identified as an “extensively resistant” type.
No more of a coincidence than the bloody glove behind OJ’s house.
I agree. It’s a slow news week. Media (and audiences) needed a break from the daily routine of “3 more Americans blown up in Iraq” and “Presidential candidate X uttered soundbite Y”. I ride the NYC subway to and from work every day, and I expect I’m a lot more likely to have caught some super-duper TB strain from that, than any of the people who sat near this guy on one plane ride. For crying out loud, his new wife doesn’t even test positive!
Actually, he was on a border or entry-point watch list as well. I guess they weren’t exactly on their toes on the Canadian border (where, IIRC, there’ve been slip-ups before).
Are there are any mild forms of TB? I would not want the person next to me on a plane to have an ordinary cold, much less TB of any kind.
They say he came back to the US from Canada because he thought he could be seen sooner by doctors.
Doesn’t speak well of national healthscare.
Possible scenario:
Dad is infected and infects his daughter.
Daughter infects her new finance.
A John Edwards trial lawyer. A cold hearted monster hidden beneath an orthodontic smile and designer clothes.
As I understand it, he was put on the “no fly” list because of his TB. Likely done, I suppose, when the CDC tracked him to Rome and told him not to fly.
That’s when he flew against orders (the no-fly list is just for the U.S. and I don’t suppose that foreign airlines use it.) to Prague and then to Montreal. Then he drove into the U.S.
At that point, he’s a U.S. citizen coming back into the U.S. and there’s nothing for the border agents to detain him for. He wasn’t wanted or subject to arrest, at least not yet.
If this is a random coincidence, it has to be one of those on the order of about a billion to 1.
Remember the aerial views of the Ryder trucks carrying Florida ballots during the 2000 election recount? A banner day for filler “news.”
he flew home for treatment, fearing he wouldn't survive if he didn't reach the U.S., he said
never mind about the people going to Europe. Just as long as he gets to the U.S. for treatment. He will soon find out what it means to be in the witness chair. They're going to take him for all he's worth and then some. Especially if European authorities wish to press charges.
He isn't even sick.
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