AFFIDAVIT OF Harry A. Harrison  

            BEFORE ME, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared Harry A. Harrison, who, after being duly sworn stated the following under oath:

“My name is Harry A. Harrison.  I am a co-defendant in the above numbered cause. I am over twenty-one years of age and am qualified to make this affidavit. Each and every statement made herein is within my personal knowledge and is true and correct.

“I am not an alcoholic. At one time, now 16 years ago, I started drinking heavier than usual because of very difficult business pressures. Before that time, I drank very little alcohol. So when I increased the amount of drinking to two or three times a week, and up to six drinks at a time, I quite naturally became worried that I might be an alcoholic. I knew nothing about the disease at that time. I went to AA meetings for about six months. During those meetings, I spoke occasionally.  When someone speaks at an AA meeting, the speaker must introduce himself or herself by first name and then state, “I am an alcoholic.” Even young kids who have been ordered by the court to 30 days’ of AA meetings after they have gotten in trouble for being drunk. Those are the rules.

“If not for my commitment to be truthful to the best of my recollection in all things, I would not even have to tell anyone that I attended a few AA meetings all those years ago. The meetings are anonymous, as the name “Alcoholics Anonymous” implies, and people who attend do not even give their last names.

“As I attended those AA meetings 16 years ago for approximately six months, I noticed that I didn’t have any cravings for alcohol, nor did I have any difficulty abstaining from alcohol. Because of that, and because I heard so many horror stories told by other people in the meetings about their problems caused by alcohol, problems that did not mirror my situation or my life at all, I logically determined that I wasn’t an alcoholic.

“I learned in those AA meetings that physiologically, alcohol is actually a poison to the body. Because of that, and because of the frightening stories I heard people tell about the effects of alcohol on their lives, I decided that there was simply no reason to have alcohol in my life, period. So I simply never drank alcohol again. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision for a lifetime, but it just evolved that I never did drink any more alcohol.

 “I heard testimony in those few AA meetings 16 years ago that abstaining from alcohol was a difficult struggle for most alcoholics, a struggle that many of them experienced every day of their lives, a struggle that many of the “old timers” said they had experienced every day, year after year after year. But for me, abstaining from alcohol was nothing more than an awareness that I wanted to take good care of my health. I have not experienced any struggle regarding alcohol.

“I mention to doctors that I drank heavily at one time all those years ago for a short period of time. I mention it, plus the fact that I have not drank since, because I believe it’s an excellent indication to the doctor that I take responsibility for my health and well being.

“I simply could not have told Dr. Nichols that I am an alcoholic. I’m not an alcoholic and I don’t think of myself as an alcoholic. I’m just a man who decided not to drink alcohol, after experiencing a period of heavier-than-usual drinking 16 years ago – before which time I hardly drank any alcohol at all.

“I am being sued by Dr. Nichols.  I don’t have a lawyer, and I am doing my best to learn the complicated process of defending  myself without a lawyer. In this lawsuit, I’m continually forced to do things that I have never done before.  Depositions are just one of the processes in which I’ve never had any previous experience.  In trying to learn about depositions, I read in my Nolo’s Deposition Handbook that I should refrain from giving absolute answers to questions I don’t remember with absolute certainty.  Therefore, I have stated in deposition that I don’t remember definitively whether or not I circled the word “alcoholism” on Dr. Nichols’ form. The reason I testified that way is because I don’t remember filling out the form at all, any of it. But I do know with absolute certainty that I would have had no reason to circle the word “alcoholism.” I do know with absolute certainty that I am left handed, and the manner of circling of  the word “alcoholism” on Dr. Nichols’ form is inconsistent with the manner in which the other words on the form are circled – the words that I did have reason to circle. And I do know with absolute certainty that, as an experiment, I have tried to circle a word even somewhat like the manner in which the word “alcoholism” is circled on Dr. Nichols’ form – and I was unable to do so because of my left-handedness. I don’t know who circled the word “alcoholism” on Dr. Nichols’ form, but I do know with absolute certainty that I would have had no reason to circle it. And I do know with absolute certainty that after I filled out the form in Dr. Nichols’ office and turned it in to the person at the front desk, the form was never again in my possession.

“I do know with certainty that World Insurance denied health insurance to me, and they stated “alcoholism” as a major reason for their denial.

“I am an ordinary man; a man who has been forced into almost total retirement by the severe reduction of the workforce in my field of Information Technology (reference Enron, Dynegy, El Paso Energy, et al.). Because of  the high unemployment rate in my field, I am forced to draw from my retirement savings much sooner than I had intended – at a time that my retirement savings have also been savagely diminished by the stock market plunge.

 “I am an ordinary man who was facing the end of my COBRA insurance; a man who was simply trying to obtain affordable health insurance before the deadline – or as affordable as possible in today’s increasingly expensive health insurance market.

“Because of my good health, I was surprised when World Insurance denied coverage to me. Then, after my wife and I persisted for 10 months in trying to find out why, World Insurance finally revealed that “alcoholism” was a  major reason for their denial. I was stunned when I discovered that Dr. Nichols’ records stated I have “a history of alcoholism.” According to my thinking, and according to what I believe is general social understanding, there is a difference between alcoholism and “heavy drinking.” That is, that alcoholism is a disease that is always present, that is never “cured,” even if the alcoholic does not drink alcohol for many years. In addition, it is my belief that the manner in which Dr. Nichols wrote about me in reference to alcohol leads people to conclude that I have a current or recent problem with alcohol.

“If, when my wife and I discovered the errors in Dr. Nichols’ medical records and asked him for help… if, when we explained the problem and simply asked him to have his records reflect the truth….if, at that time Dr. Nichols had just said, “Gosh, I’m sorry, how can I help?” – this lawsuit would never have come about.”

                                                                                    Harry A. Harrison 

Subscribed and sworn to before me on this                  day of                                      , 2003.                                                                       

                                                                        Notary Public in and for the State of Texas

RETURN TO CHRONOLOGY