Ruling means limbo for CdA’s Rhodes

Five of six ailing people whose cases were decided Thursday by a federal jury in Spokane got definitive rulings on whether Hanford’s radioactive iodine emissions were the likely cause of their illnesses.

But 63-year-old Shannon Rhodes of Coeur d’Alene, whose metastasized thyroid cancer returned aggressively during the trial without the jury’s knowledge, has been left in limbo.

“I’m shocked … I feel close to tears,” Rhodes said in an interview after the verdicts were read.

When the jury declared itself deadlocked in her case, U.S. District Court Judge William F. Nielsen declared a mistrial. Rhodes’ case may be retried this fall – or it could be settled during mediation that Nielsen has called for in the remaining 2,300 Hanford cases.

Rhodes, born in Colfax to a farm family in 1941, was among three thyroid cancer plaintiffs whose cases went to trial on April 25. She was one of six “bellwether” cases thought to represent the larger body of plaintiffs exposed to iodine 131, a radioactive pollutant emitted during the production of plutonium at Hanford in the 1940s and ‘50s and absorbed in the human thyroid gland.

But Rhodes also had the lowest estimated Hanford radiation dose among the thyroid cancer cases – 6.9 rads of iodine 131. The dose was about one-fourth of the amount experienced by the other two thyroid cancer plaintiffs whose illnesses the jury ruled Thursday were likely caused by the Hanford emissions. Jurors were also told about her prior thyroid problems and operations.

But the jury wasn’t told that her cancer, thought to be in remission, had returned during the trial.

Magnetic resonance imaging showed that a tumor in her skull was growing. Doctors ordered more tests.

“I went for a CAT scan. They found a good-sized tumor wrapped around my trachea, another new one further down and lots of small tumors in my lungs. It’s suddenly turned very aggressive,” Rhodes said.

Her lawyers “tried to get this information to the jury. It was blocked by the defense,” Rhodes said.

If the jury had found that radioactive iodine 131 from Hanford was “more likely than not” the cause of Rhodes’ illness – the legal yardstick used in the trial – Nielsen would have held a bench trial to determine what damages to award her based on the recurrence of her cancer.

Her medical bills so far have exceeded $500,000, which has been covered by insurance, Rhodes said.

On the farm where she was raised in Colfax, Rhodes drank milk from family cows in the years of Hanford’s largest iodine 131 emissions in the mid-1940s. Children were most at risk from iodine 131, which fell on grass and was absorbed in their thyroid glands when they drank milk.

Rhodes said she’s struggled with thyroid disease for 27 years.

She had her left thyroid lobe removed in January 1978 and was told it was a benign tumor. But unknown to her, a slow-growing cancer was metastasizing in her body. It wasn’t detected until she and her husband Ken retired and moved to Coeur d’Alene from Seattle five years ago.

“A mass was found on my right lung,” Rhodes said.

She had three more cancer surgeries: in 2001 on her parathyroid gland; in 2002 for the metastasized lung tumor; and again in 2003, when she had her right thyroid lobe removed. She joined the downwinders’ lawsuit, originally filed in 1990, in 2003.

After Thursday’s verdicts, Louise Roselle of Cincinnati, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said they would need some time to think about what to do next with Rhodes’ case.

But with her cancer spreading fast, Rhodes said she can’t think ahead at all as she faces more medical tests and treatment decisions.

“It’s been so traumatic finding out about my health. We’ve spent parts of each day in tears. I don’t feel justice has been done with this verdict. It would have been different if they’d allowed this new information to get to the jury,” Rhodes said.