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Parents blast Army response to rabies death

The family of a Fort Drum, N.Y., soldier who died of rabies has accused the Army of “criminal negligence” in his death.

A military investigation found that Spc. Kevin Shumaker told several people he was bitten by a dog, but ultimately faulted him for not telling his chain of command.

Shumaker died of rabies in August at the age of 24, eight months after a dog bite in Afghanistan, according to a military investigation.

Shumaker’s mother and stepfather, Elaine and David Taylor, said it was wrong to blame their son and that his Army superiors should be held accountable.

“If you ask me as a mom what I would like to see, it’s accountability for the people who were neglectful, who caused Kevin’s death,” she said. “You can’t take Kev away from me and allow the chain of command, who was responsible for Kevin, to go on and live happily; nothing happens to them.”

Shumaker’s death was the first fatal case of rabies in the U.S. military since the Vietnam War, officials say. Between 2001 and 2010, 643 U.S. troops reported animal bites in the war zone and 142 of them received rabies vaccination of some kind, though only one case was documented as “exposure to rabies,” according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center.

The Shumaker investigation, conducted by a Marine colonel under the auspices of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, concluded that Shumaker died because members of his unit ignored General Order 1B, which forbids keeping pets, and that Shumaker neither sought prompt medical treatment nor notified his chain of command.

“The principal contributing factors to Spc. Shumaker contracting rabies are the command’s lack of enforcement of GO-1B, Spc. Shumaker’s nonadherence to GO-1B, and Spc. Shumaker’s failure to seek prompt medical treatment, and no subsequent treatment was given,” the report states.

Investigators found that Shumaker mentioned the dog bite he sustained on or about Jan. 11 at least two times: first to a visiting veterinary corps officer in March and then on his post-deployment health screening form in April.

His parents fault Army training for the all-around failure to take the dangers of wild animals and dog bites seriously.

“They had not educated veterinarians or doctors checking post-deployment reports, or any of the soldiers themselves as to the subsequent results of being bitten by a dog,” David Taylor said.

The Taylors said Army officials have acknowledged that mistakes led to their son’s death, but said that is not enough.

“There’s acknowledging responsibility, and then there’s accountability,” Elaine Taylor said. “Imagine if this was your child. To us, it feels like someone killed Kevin. Kevin did not know the severity of a dog bite, and he told people who I believe did not know it.”

Army’s response

Shumaker’s death has shaken the Army medical community and spurred action.

Col. Steven Cersovsky, director of epidemiology and disease surveillance at U.S. Army Public Health Command, said the military already tries to educate soldiers, make treatment available and issue orders that troops avoid feral animals. Now, Army epidemiologists are examining what more can be done in the wake of Shumaker’s tragic death, he said.

Army Public Health Command’s initial response was to identify, evaluate and treat anyone else exposed to rabies or a feral animal downrange from mid-August until a few weeks ago.

Roughly 9,000 previously unidentified people, many of them soldiers, came forward to be evaluated, Cersovsky said. That in part has led Army epidemiologists to devise a lessons-learned report to inform stronger new policies.

“Rabies has always been part of our pre-deployment threat brief, but the question becomes if everyone’s told about it, why aren’t they engaging in activities that would help prevent the disease,” Cersovsky said.

In response to the USFOR-A report, dated Oct. 13, Deputy Commanding General Maj. Gen. William Rapp approved a dozen recommendations. Among them:

• Shumaker’s battalion, the 709th Military Police Battalion, “further investigate to see if any members of the unit should be disciplined for their actions or omissions during the unit’s deployment to Afghanistan.”

• USFOR-A institute an animal-borne disease surveillance program, standardize rabies vaccine requirements and improve dog bite reporting requirements.

• Reinforce animal bite and rabies training for veterinarians and post-deployment health screening staff.

‘Tacit disregard’

Shumaker, raised in Castro Valley, Calif., satisfied a longtime interest in the Army when he joined in 2009, his parents said. More recently he aspired to earn a Ranger tab, apply to intelligence school and put his expertise with computers to work for the Army.

In May 2010, he deployed for the first time to Afghanistan, where he served as a cook with the 615th MPs on Combat Outpost Chamkani.

Shumaker was known as a jokester at the dining facility where he worked and as a good listener by his friends, whom he picked carefully, his parents said. He cooked meals in a kitchen that was allocated to the special operations troops, whom he told his parents he admired.

“He loved to smoke cigars with his buddies,” Elaine Taylor said. “He had a huge heart, and he took care of people. That’s what made Kevin feel good.”

Shumaker was bitten when he broke up a fight between a dog that soldiers kept on the outpost and a feral dog, he told his parents.

The investigation found that stray dogs freely went through COP Chamkani’s porous barbed-wire fence and roamed the section occupied by the 615th MPs. Despite a dog eradication program, the unit’s soldiers and leadership treated the pet and mascot prohibition and General Order 1B with a “tacit disregard,” the report states.

Shumaker loved animals, his parents said. The family has long owned dogs, and he had volunteered with his mother at an animal shelter but disapproved when animals were euthanized.

By some accounts given to investigators, Shumaker had close contact with the dogs on the post, feeding, petting and playing with them. He sought treatment in July for a scratch from either a bite or a fall after he was attacked by a dog, the investigation said.

Shumaker’s parents blamed superiors in his company and higher up for the permissive stance toward pets.

“Wild dogs would have been present, but there would have been no need for Kev to protect a base dog,” David Taylor said.

‘Man, does my arm hurt’

After he was bitten, Shumaker told his parents by phone and online messages that he had been given a partial sequence of rabies shots that was stopped because the medication was expired. He also told them he was ordered to shoot the dog and bring it in for rabies testing.

It appears this may not have been true. The investigation found no evidence that Shumaker sought or received the care he described to his parents, that he was ordered to shoot a dog or that one was tested for rabies.

A blood test after his condition was detected found no rabies antibodies in his system, and there was no human rabies vaccine available or called forward to COP Chamkani, the report states.

His stepfather conceded that Shumaker, while an honest person, may have told them a “story” to keep them from worrying. “I personally think he was trying to make us feel better,” David Taylor said.

On Aug. 15, after leaving Germany for a new assignment at Fort Drum, Shumaker reported neck and arm pain to his parents. He was treated at a civilian hospital for tendinitis and eventually experienced nausea and vomiting.

“He was happy to be in the United States, but [said] ‘Man, does my arm hurt,’” Elaine Taylor said.

On Aug. 19, Shumaker reported for duty and collapsed on post. He was taken to a series of hospitals with signs of rabies.

Doctors placed him in a coma and administered an experimental rabies treatment before he suffered a brain hemorrhage and died on Aug. 31.

U.S. Forces Command has conducted its own investigation into Shumaker’s case. FORSCOM provided this investigation to the Taylors in mid-January but did not immediately make it available to Army Times.

Shumaker’s parents said they remain angry and dissatisfied with the Army’s response.

“We’re pissed-off parents,” David Taylor said, “and we aren’t going away.”