Case Study For Mesothelioma Attorney New Jersey
DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON’T
Living Tragedy
Tony*, 65, held a faded black and white photograph of a robust good looking person with Elvis hairstyle in his wrinkled hands. The person was laughing as if without any troubles in the world and was covered with asbestos dust. Tony let out a deep sigh. The handsome picture of health was him and now his body had lost most of its fat and muscle. The skin barely covered his emaciated skeletal frame. Narrow plastic tubes were running through his nose providing him with much needed oxygen. His lungs had failed him. Tony had become a living tragedy like hundreds of other asbestos victim colleagues most of them who worked along with Tony at Johns Manville Corporation in New Jersey. The team of specialists in the nearby medical centre had diagnosed him with pleural mesothelioma.
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Pleural mesothelioma is a type of cancer which affects the fragile lining of the lungs and the malignant cells often extend to other internal organs. In addition to pleural mesothelioma, there are other types of mesotheliomas such as pericardial mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma is deadly and the prognosis is usually poor, as patients eventually die an agonizing death.
No Responsibility
Tony was employed at the Johns Manville Corporation for more than three decades with his job involving the slicing of asbestos shingles and producing various kinds of asbestos materials. Johns Manville Corporation in Manville, New Jersey is an American corporation that was initially set up in 1858 for the manufacture of insulation, roofing materials and engineered products made of asbestos fibers. During the two world wars the corporation was closely involved in the manufacturing of insulation sheets for war ships. Although Johns Manville made huge profits over the years yet they did not install any health and safety measures for their employees that numbered in hundreds. Those health and safety measures could have comprised masks, overcoats, taking of showers after finishing work, scrupulous cleaning up of factories and ban on workplace smoking. However evidences now show that safety measures may have lessened the mesothelioma statistics but even a small amount of asbestos exposure would have eventually lead to lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Simple Dreams
Tony like many of his co-workers was clueless about the harmful effects of asbestos dust particles. He belonged to the generation where working with one’s hands meant dignity and self-respect and hopefully a decent wage at the end of the month. All Tony wanted was to provide for his family and after retirement a little garden where he could amuse himself with his dogs and grandkids.
Beginning of Health Problems
Having been with the company since 1944, Tony thought that since he had become such an integral part of Johns Manville and couldn’t imagine himself working anywhere else, he would be with the company till he retired at the age of 65. However life is full of surprises. Or rather more of nightmares for some people. Tony’s health started to fall from 1965 onwards. At first he experienced breathing problems. He would wheeze while breathing in. The initial diagnosis was that he had become asthmatic and was asked to quit smoking by his company’s physician. He was given the necessary medication to deal with his asthma. Soon the medication became ineffective. He continued to see his company’s doctor as he couldn’t afford to go to specialists, who then prescribed him higher dosage of medication. It was effective for a while but that too did not last its potency. He started to lose weight and getting up from bed to go to work became a chore. By the early 1970s his asthmatic condition became so severe that he often had to absent himself from work. Finally at age 50 in 1974 Tony was forced to retire by his employers due to poor health. With his job gone, it also meant that his regular doctor visits were also unfortunately cut short.
You Can Count On Your Family
His family rallied round him when his meager funds dried up. They took him to lung specialists who made Tony go through a round of intensive diagnostic tests when it was finally diagnosed that Tony had pleural mesothelioma. Tony went through the usual round of chemotherapy sessions and radiations which left him nauseous, weak, fatigued and bald. One day a colleague Jane* who was also his close friend, dropped by to visit him and told him if he knew about PDT or photo dynamic therapy.
PDT
She told him that it is a revolutionary breakthrough treatment in which a patient is injected with a photosensitizing drug that makes the cancer cells sensitive to light after which fiber optic wires are inserted into the patient’s body in order to focus the light waves. This kills cancer cells and tumors by creating molecules that is toxic to mesothelioma. She too had been detected with mesothelioma but because her tumors were way too deep according to her doctors, she was not a good candidate for PDT. She strongly recommended PDT to Tony as she had read a lot of promising stuff on the internet and other prestigious medical journals.
Tony was understandably reluctant but his family wanted him to take a chance on PDT. Some of his family members went on the internet and scoured the web for useful information and successful PDT patients. They zeroed in on an oncologist Dr. Jacob* who was doing pioneering work in the field. The family met him on one sunny afternoon who laid out all the details of PDT.
A Shot of Photofrin
Dr. Jacob explained to Tony’s family all about photo-dynamic therapy. PDT involves the injecting of a patient with Photofrin, a drug that specifically targets and attaches to mesothelioma cells. The doctor inserts a fiber optic cable carefully into the patient’s chest, and turns on the high intensity light. This light interacts with Photofrin creating a special kind of oxygen that devours the nasty cells. Two things are crucial for the success of PDT- timing and aim, since the oncologist has to point the light only on the cancer cells filled with Photofrin and not the healthy cells which too are crammed with Photofrin.
The Good Comes With the Bad
Since Tony was quite sick, his family members had themselves gone to Dr. Jacob to find as much information as possible about PDT. When asked about the side effects of the therapy, Jacob frankly informed them that due to the localized swelling and inflammation occurring in and around the treated area it may lead to pain in the chest, back or abdomen. The treated patient may also have constipation, fever, pneumonia, bronchitis, edema and in some cases may cough up small amounts of blood. Breathing problems if already present in the patient would be further aggravated. |
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The skin and eyes become sensitive to bright light and so Tony if treated would have to stay away from sunlight, reading lamps and any other sources of glaring light, artificial or natural. Tony would have to cover as much skin as possible, especially whenever he feels like going out, by wearing full sleeve shirts, slacks, gloves, socks, shoes and wide brimmed hat. He would have to even put on sunglasses on cloudy days and stay in the car. Tony’s family was grateful to Dr. Jacob for providing them with all the necessary information about PDT. It would make their decision easier. All they had to do now was to pass on this information to Tony and help him in arriving at a decision.
A Dignified End
Tony quietly listened to all the information related to PDT- the process, the benefits and the side effects. There was a blank expression on his face while he took in all the info. He spoke up in a clear but halting voice. He told his family that he was neither mentally nor physically up to it to undergo PDT and that he wanted to die a peaceful death. His family respecting his wishes did not pressurize him into further treatments.
Anthony Mark Lewis* died in 1981.
* Names of people have been changed to protect their privacy |
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