If you’ve ever meet someone who’s watched a loved one die of mesothelioma, they’ll probably tell you how horrible of a disease that it is. Mesothelioma is a lung cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. While it can be treated, in many cases it is deadly. Mesothelioma can spread to the lymph nodes, chest, or abdominal organs if it is not caught and treated early. Many people with mesothelioma are forced to undergo chemotherapy.
The symptoms of mesothelioma often do not surface until as many as forty years after a person is exposed to asbestos. Mesothelioma in its beginning stages can cause chest wall pain pleural effusion, shortness of breath, wheezing, hoarseness, or cough. In its middle stages it can cause abdominal pain, abdominal masses, problems with bowel function, and weight loss. However, the worst symptoms and effects of mesothelioma occur in advanced stages, including blood clots in the veins, severe bleeding in body organs, jaundice, low blood sugar, and blood clots in the arteries of the lungs, among others.
The only cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. Most commonly, this exposure occurs when an employer has been negligent and knowingly or unknowingly exposed their employees to asbestos without offering them proper protection from the asbestos fibers. However, there have been other cases when individuals have contracted mesothelioma due to secondhand exposure to asbestos fibers carried home on the clothes of family members that worked with asbestos.
Mesothelioma victims deserve compensation for many reasons. First, they medical bills are outrageous in trying to control or defeat this horrendous disease. Second, many people who suffer from mesothelioma are unable to return to work after the symptoms begin, and there individuals may not have been ready to retire at the age in which their mesothelioma is diagnosed. But finally, and perhaps most important, mesothelioma victims are just that — victims. Many employers knew as early as the beginning of the 20th century that asbestos was harmful, but they exposed employees to it anyway.
