Mesothelioma case related to 9/11
Yesterday I was talking to my long time friend via Skype. We went to high school together and she currently lives and works in New York. The 9/11 attacks happened during our last year of high school and the year after she went to college in New York. The whole world witnessed the terrible event and had, still have sympathy for the victims and their families.
Many people all over the US went to New York to help finding the victims alive or dead. People such as fireman, police officers, construction workers, government workers, paramedics, nurses, you name it and many non related volunteers who helped without pay. Little did these people know about the silent killer they were breathing in at that time!
Gina, my friend was telling me about her friend and colleague’s father who was one of the firemen helping during the tragedy. At the beginning of this year, his father developed some breathing problems and like any regular person, he visited his Doctor. After some tests, he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that develops from the protective lining that covers many of the body’s internal organs. It is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos, a fibrous type of mineral used for heat resistance in the 19th century. Most people who develop Mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. It is possible that by just washing the clothes of a person who worked with asbestos can put you at risk for developing Mesothelioma.
In this case, Gina’s colleague’s father was a smoker, something that will speed up the disease to develop and he’s a retired man in his late fifties. His insurance will only cover so far for the treatments and because of that he will face almost two years of paying for his treatment instead of enjoying vacations, cruise ship tours and so forth. Apparently he doesn’t want to take legal action against the City of New York either because he wants to enjoy the little time he has left with his family and his first grandchild to be born.
There must be something to be done for this man and his family. The saddest part is that he’s not the only one; there are currently many people that helped as volunteers that are having lung problems. Not every one of them necessarily developed Mesothelioma but there are many with lung related diseases due to debri exposure.
I really believe that he should hire a lawyer to handle his case and win it! There are many people besides him that are currently involved in lawsuits against the ones responsible for them contracting the disease. In this case and others like it, we are talking about men and women who served their country out of pure love and now the country they love is stabbing them in the back.
