Mesothelioma is a terrible cancer which is caused by asbestos exposure, and it is diagnosed each year in about 2000 to 3000 people each year here in the United States. Unfortunately, North Carolina is consistently ranked in the top 15 states as regards the number of unfortunate people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year here in the U.S.
When representing thousands of workers at the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi in the largest consolidated asbestos lawsuit trial in the United States back in the early 1990’s, I had numerous clients with malignant mesothelioma for whom we were trying to make real to the jury what it was like to be suffering from mesothelioma, often just called “meso”.
Our medical experts, to simplify this most unfortunate situation for the men and women who sat on that jury, described the effect of this asbestos lung cancer by comparing the malignant mesothelioma tumor to shoe leather on the bottom of a shoe. These doctors told that jury: Imagine if this shoe-sole leather had formed around the victim’s lung, constricting the ability of their lung to expand in order to draw in a new breath of air. And when the mesothelioma tumor grew — as it would, being that it is a progressive fatal disease process — this person would feel the pain and the agony of being increasingly unable to breath. As this mesothelioma cancer continues to grow, it becomes a lump which could be seen on the individual’s side or back — more and more painful, such that an internal morphine pump might be required to help them cope in order to get through each difficult hour, day, and week. But not that morphine pump nor any other medication nor radical surgery could save those shipyard workers from their ultimate fate — death. On average, the expected life expectancy on a person diagnosed with mesothelioma is only six to eighteen months.
While our law firm cannot stop the ultimate fate of those individuals, we do help people with mesothelioma, or the families of those who have died from this asbestos cancer, get legal compensation from those companies that are responsible for the various exposures to asbestos dust over the years which caused their mesothelioma.
We have helped workers and their families from all parts of North Carolina. Let us know it we can help you.