I’ve touched on suing for medical reasons before, so now I plan to talk about mesothelioma lawyers.
Mesothelioma is a very serious form cancer that seems to affect people who have inhaled asbestos particles. The cancer attacks the mesothelium, the protective sac around many internal organs.
Is this another case where companies knew they were exposing people to hazardous conditions but cared more about profit than the safety of their workers? In some cases, yes. That’s where the lawyers come in.
For example one court found auto companies responsible for $25 million in damages because a man who worked on asbestos filled brake lines got mesothelioma.
Before you say that’s too much consider the healthcare costs and the pain caused by treatment of mesothelioma:
Fake has mesothelioma, a disease in which cancer cells form in the lining of the chest or abdomen. It’s nearly always the result of asbestos exposure. Fake, who worked as a boilermaker for 35 years, learned he had the disease on April Fool’s Day 2005, and soon after came the removal of his right lung and its lining, as well as his diaphragm and pericardium, a tissue sac that surrounds the heart. He underwent 30-minute radiation treatments every weekday for two months, leaving him with fourth-degree burns at the radiation site and literally “cooking from the inside out” as the right side of his body blistered, Marilyn Fake said.
Are you going to sit there and say any maount of money is enough to compensate a guy for 4th degree radiation burns? No, if his employers didn’t do everything in their power to keep him safe, they should have to pay. According to the mesothelioma lawyers’ website I linked to above, finding the right attorney is everything in these cases - I hope Bill Fake finds an attorney that can help him.
If you have any big lumps that your doctor is telling you not to worry about, I recommend a second opinion.
About a year ago I had an infected sweat gland removed from my upper back, near my neck. It was a big, hard lump that I had had for years. In high school I was worried it was cancer but a doctor told me not to worry about it so I didn’t. I wish I had talked to a better doctor…
Eventually (many years later) my wife and I thought it just looked too weird and it had to go.
The surgery was fairly minor - they used local anesthetic, showed me what they took out (it looked like a fleshy ping pong ball), and sent me home.
I had one other infeected sweat gland that no one paid attention to (I knew it was there) because it was on my lower back just below the waist line. Somehow I managed to pop this one. It turned red and became painful.
The doctor who removed my first one saw it and said I’d better come in for surgery right away. 2 days later I had gotten my EKGs, bloodwork, urine tests, etc. done to make sure I could handle my first ever general anesthesia. Because this one was popped and deep and whatever they were going to knock me out.
I spent a couple days in the hospital recovering. They couldn’t stitch up the wound completely because of the infection so I have a little tube sticking out of the wound to drain all the bad stuff. It’s very hard to get comfortable (not surprising when there’s a hole in my back) and I have trouble sitting and sleeping. I can’t bend my back.
Anyway, if you have an infected sweat gland or two (or just a couple of round bumps that could be anything) see about getting them taken care of before they cause you extra trouble. Now that doesn’t mean go get surgery. My father in law has had one of these bumps for 50 years or so and if it never bothers hims than not getting surgery was obviously smart.
I’m just saying find a doctor who can tell you what it is and the advantages and disadvantages of getting it removed. Because if knew then what I know now I would have gotten both of mine removed last year - thus avoiding the second, more serious surgery with its longer (I can’t work out for 2 weeks) recovery time.
The Trouble with Nursing Homes: It isn't so much the care as it is the
nature of the beast:
Nursing home priorities are matters like avoiding bedsores and maintaining weight -- important goals, but they are means, not ends. She left an airy apartment she furnished herself for a small beige hospital-like room with a stranger for a roommate. Her belongings were stripped down to what she could fit into the one cupboard and shelf they gave her. Basic matters, like when she goes to bed, wakes up, dresses and eats were put under the rigid schedule of institutional life. Her main activities have become bingo, movies and other forms of group entertainment. Is it any wonder most people dread nursing homes?
The things she misses most, she told me, are her friendships, her privacy and the purpose in her days. She's not alone. Surveys of nursing home residents reveal chronic boredom, loneliness and lack of meaning -- results not fundamentally different from prisoners, actually.I'm pretty sure I would regard it as a prison, but I've known some people who are actually happier in the nursing home. They've all been very gregarious, outgoing people who love company. They are few, however, which is why
movements like this are likely to catch on.
