As a US diplomat for the nation’s consulate in southern China, Mark Lenzi was used to dealing with master-codes and confidential information every day.
But while sitting at his desk in Guangzhou, the security engineering officer suddenly found his brain was so foggy he couldn’t remember basic passwords.
Soon the New Hampshire native’s head was pounding, the severe fatigue set in and even the office light seemed painfully blinding.
After struggling through the day, the longtime official found he could barely sleep at night at his government-provided high-rise located close to the Pearl River, around 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong.
It was the spring of 2018, and he didn’t realize until later that the strange symptoms appeared to be sparked by something at the apartment, where he lived with his wife, daughter and son, then aged nine and four.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail close to the Washington, DC, hospital where he is being treated, Lenzi, 50, has shared how one harrowing moment marked the start of what would be a lifetime affliction for his family.
State Department security engineering officer Mark Lenzi, 50, believes he suffered a false microwave attack by Russia while he was posted in China in 2018. (Pictured: the Lenzi family)
Pictured: the area of Guangzhou, China, where the Lenzis were staying in spring 2018
One of the sonic weapons that could cause Havana syndrome is said to be a smaller version of this 1990s Soviet microwave generator, which is kept at the University of New Mexico
Lenzi said the family’s health troubles started with a single sound – an ominous ‘clicking noise’ emanating from the main bedroom which overlooked thousands of other buildings.
The strange audio seemed to trigger a visceral reaction for each member of the family, ranging from intense pressure in their heads accompanied by a wave of nausea to sudden severe nosebleeds.
‘My wife was giving the kids a bath in the Guangzhou apartment,’ he said, remembering the upsetting incident from the spring of 2018.
‘My wife heard the clicking sounds, and all of a sudden, both kids had bleeding noses so severely that the water turned red with blood.’
Lenzi is now listed among more than 300 US officials based abroad who have reported experiencing the strange set of symptoms linked to ‘Havana Syndrome’ – a condition first seen in 2016 among Americans posted in Cuba.
Many of those impacted by the illness, including Lenzi, believe that Russian military intelligence operatives are using pulsed microwave attacks to target Americans on their enemy list.
The official, who said Vladimir Putin kicked him out of Russia in 2002, explained that his family was promptly medevac’d out of China on June 6, 2018, after he and his wife failed State Department medical tests.
As shown in medical documents seen by the Daily Mail, UPenn scientists determined that Lenzi had ‘experienced uncharacterized environmental exposure’ while DC doctors diagnosed them with ‘mild brain injuries’.
In further implicit recognition of their suffering, the federal government gave the Lenzis $1 million under the Havana Act Compensation Act – despite the White House never admitting that what they experienced was real.
After being ‘ignored and gas-lit’ by the Biden administration for the past seven years, Lenzi is now hopeful President Donald Trump will hear his story and take the threat that Havana Syndrome poses to Americans around the world seriously.
Pictured: Lenzi undergoing brain EEG at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in January 2025
Lenzi has been receiving treatment for a ‘mild brain injury’ diagnosis for the past few years
Lenzi has worked for the State Department in Russia, China and Finland for more than 22 years
State Department security engineering officer Lenzi believes he suffered a false microwave attack by Russia while he was posted in China in 2018. (Pictured: the Lenzi family)
Lenzi believes he was targeted because of his work with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili in the former Soviet Union, a political enemy of Putin’s who has since been imprisoned.
‘The fact that he (Putin) would do this to me is honestly the least surprising thing,’ said Lenzi, who has worked for the State Department for 22 years.
‘But I was surprised that my family was also being affected. That crossed a line.
‘What was shocking was that my own government who I have worked for in Afghanistan and Iraq turned its back on me and my family the one time I asked them for anything. I never asked them for a goddamn thing.’
Lenzi said when his family first experienced ‘Havana Syndrome’ symptoms in the spring of 2018, he thought it may have been them simply adapting to the thick smog that blanketed the Guangdong province.
‘What I couldn’t explain though, was I was having severe short-term memory problems,’ he told Daily Mail.
‘I have to have a lot of master-codes in my head and classified information for my job, but I couldn’t even remember the most basic passwords.
‘The short-term memory loss for me was the most distressing.’
The Lenzi family lived next door to Catherine Werner, another US diplomat at the consulate, who said she also experienced the same odd symptoms. Her dog even began throwing up blood.
It took them a while to piece their cases together because, according to Lenzi, the US consulate ‘was going to great lengths to have us not talk’.
‘We were both experiencing the headaches, vertigo issues, sleep difficulties, and things like that,’ he said.
Symptoms of Havana Syndrome include loud noise, ear pain, intense head pressure or vibration, dizziness, visual problems, and cognitive difficulties
Pictured: Lenzi’s diagnosis of ‘mild acquired brain injury’
The security official added that the symptoms were even worse for his then-four-year-old son, who was later diagnosed with severe working memory deficits.
‘My manager refused to listen to me. I was begging them,’ Lenzi said, referring to State Department Diplomatic Security Regional Security Officer Eun ‘Judy’ Lim.
Lenzi said the most ‘outrageous’ part of the saga for him was when the US government denied treatment for his kids, claiming that children’s brains were not impacted by the environment because their skulls weren’t fully formed yet.
‘They fed us a crock of s***,’ he said. ‘They didn’t want to open that can of worms.’
This had devastating impacts for his young son, who is now aged 10.
‘One of the darkest days in my life was when I was at Walter Reed with my son and he was being put through all the balance tests,’ Lenzi said.
‘The doctors said, “This is really severe”. They said to me, “Why didn’t you get him treated right away?” The fact that he didn’t get treated right away means that his condition is even worse. I had tears streaming down my face. I have to live with this.’
Lenzi said the State Department ‘grudgingly’ gave them Havana Acquired Brain Injury Tests in April 2018 after ‘dangerous levels of pulsed microwave radiation were measured’ around the home where they were saying.
The family failed the tests, triggering their evacuation from China.
Pictured: State Department official Lenzi with his daughter, who is now 15 years old
Lenzi said his son was four years old and his daughter nine when they suffered the attacks
State Department security engineering officer Lenzi believes he suffered a false microwave attack by Russia while he was posted in China in 2018. (Pictured: the Lenzi family)
Lenzi said the State Department is well aware that the clicking sounds they heard were ‘due to thermoelastic expansion of the inner ear’, known in the science community as ‘Frey Effect hearing’, caused by pulsed microwave radiation.
The US government transferred the family to UPenn on June 8, 2018, where they were treated for ‘concussion’ symptoms.
Lenzi said the treatment did not help, so he sought help from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in May 2022 based on a recommendation from a friend.
He said doctors at the DC hospital ‘made a breakthrough’ after diagnosing him with ‘mild brain injury’ and advising him to sleep for at least 12 hours a day while limiting exercise to very light workouts only.
Lenzi emailed his diagnosis to his superiors at the State Department while letting them know he was finally getting effective medical care – but they were ‘apoplectic’, telling him he was ‘supposed to stay at UPenn’.
‘The US Government knows exactly how to treat this injury, but they want us to be quiet about it,’ Lenzi told the Daily Mail.
‘I could swallow that if it was just me over in China on temporary assignment, but this impacts a lot of people and their families.’
‘The hell that I had to go through to get treated… that’s what got me,’ he added. ‘The State Department continues to treat me horribly’.
Lenzi has worked for the State Department in Russia, China and Finland for more than 22 years
The State Department diplomat wants Donald Trump to hear his story in the hopes Havana Syndrome victims will be taken more seriously
Lenzi said it took the advocacy of his local New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen to allow Americans afflicted with Havana Syndrome finally to get access to the treatment they needed.
Shaheen sponsored the WiRe Act requiring the Department of Defense to provide government employees and their relatives ‘timely access to Walter Reed for assessment if they are determined to be experiencing certain anomalous health conditions’.
His uphill battle also allegedly involved being gas-lit by the State Department while he was still in China.
Lenzi said the government gave him ‘increased emotionality counseling sessions’ to make him believe he was experiencing a mental or emotional issue rather than a physical response to a material attack.
‘Lim (his manager) and US Consulate Guangzhou leaders were trying to intimidate me into being quiet about my symptoms because they knew that me and my neighbor were injured and wanted to suppress this,’ he told the DailyMail.com.
While many of his colleagues afflicted by Havana Syndrome simply ‘gave up’ and medically retired, Lenzi refused to back down.
He approached the State Department Inspector General with documents he said proved a government ‘cover up’ in July 2018, and again in August 2024, by which time he was posted in Helsinki.
‘This time they listened and designated me officially as a whistleblower,’ Lenzi said.
He added that State Department officials responded by ‘freaking out’ and ultimately terminating his employment early, as shown in official documents seen by the the Daily Mail.
Though Lenzi officially retains his title of security engineering officer for the State Department, in practice he said he has been ‘sidelined’ to sending visa applications from DC, while his family remains in Helsinki due to his children’s schooling.
Now, Lenzi wants acknowledgement of what he has been through from the White House.
‘The Biden administration went to great lengths to cover up these false microwave attacks,’ Lenzi said.
‘I want to see Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio visit me in Walter Reed and hear directly from victims and our doctors.
‘When congressmen are able to talk to my doctors and see my MRIs and hear directly from victims and see proof, see evidence, it’s very powerful.’
Daily Mail has contacted the State Department for comment.
