Most cases of lung cancer are related to smoking, but some rare forms, such as mesothelioma cancer, have no connection to smoking. In most cases, including those originating in Oklahoma, mesothelioma is developed because of exposure to asbestos. It is usually, although not always, fatal.
Before the 1960s, asbestos was frequently used for insulation, manufacturing car parts, and in other construction materials. After a public outcry stemming from the deaths of many miners and citizens in an Australian town, governments throughout the world began to pass legislation banning the use of asbestos.
Unfortunately, however, the damage had already been done, many years before legislators began to pass these laws. Asbestos is a material commonly used to protect workers and equipment in oil drilling sites because of its ability to prevent, slow the start, or impede the progress of fires. Most of the individuals working around oil wells or asbestos mines were exposed to dangerously high levels of asbestos which caused many people living in Oaklahoma to develope mesothelioma.
When these people returned home from work, their families were also exposed. Asbestos is a fibrous material, but it breaks down and the fibers hang in the air and attach to clothing or other materials. These fibers are breathed into the lungs, and become lodged in the small air sacs at the bottom of the lungs. They are also responsible for mesothelioma cancer.
Nearly one-fifth of Oklahoma’s economy is dependent upon the production of petroleum. Hundreds of thousands of workers and their families were placed at risk for malignant melanoma in Oaklahoma because of their exposure to asbestos. To protect the oil industry, Oklahoma government officials have chosen to pass laws that work against mesothelioma settlements and claims to which workers are entitled.
According to Oklahoma law, mesothelioma victims are only entitled to file a lawsuit if their cancer is diagnosed within two years of its development, or within two years of the time it should have been diagnosed. There are two major problems with this. First, mesothelioma side effects can take decades to develop; people do not develop it two years after exposure. Furthermore, diagnosing mesothelioma cancer can be very difficult, because mesolioma symptoms are vague and often lead doctors to diagnosis congestive heart failure, emphysema, or other lung problems instead.
In June 2007, Gertrude Lowe, an Oklahoma resident, filed a lawsuit claiming that she had been exposed to asbestos through the fibers attached to the clothing of her late husband and her father. As a result, she developed mesothelioma cancer. These men were enlisted in the United States Army. She filed the case in federal court. In this Oklahoma lawsuit, she also alleged that army personnel destroyed every record that might have indicated the men had been exposed to asbestos during their service. Her claim remains unsettled.
Lowe is not alone in her misery. Two Oklahoma mesothelioma lawsuits are currently pending in the state’s courts. The mesothelioma lawsuits have encountered multiple delays by companies unwilling to admit fault. A Oklahoma city mesothelioma lawyer can drag these cases out for years. Other victims have died while the companies are given due process. In Oklahoma, mesothelioma lawsuits, appear to be on the side of the corporations, not innocent victims of this horrible disease who do not receive justice.
See more on the help of this Texas Mesothelioma attorney, to get the extra tests and repeat case filings until things were paid for…
Studies focusing on mesothelioma survival rate show dismal results, with a mortality rate of almost 100%. Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma survive, on average, six months to two years. However, there are exceptions which continue to give other mesothelioma patients and their families hope…
