Mesothelioma Lawsuit: Woman won $17 million

$17.87 million dollars have been awarded to a woman by the jury on a settlement involving asbestos exposure causing mesothelioma cancer. The woman, “Jayne Menssen” claimed she was exposed to asbestos during her employment with Union Asbestos and Rubber Co in 1960s’s as a secretary.

 Sustained asbestos exposure is known to cause malignant mesothelioma. Menssen said, the defendants
Pneumo Abex LLC and Honeywell International Inc. failed to inform her about the side effects of asbestos exposure intentionally. This was a common practice among employers misleading the employees to work with asbestos for their own gains. At the end many employers have ended up paying huge amounts to settle lawsuits filed by their employees.

 Mesothelioma cancer symptoms unveil themselves only after 20 – 30 years of exposure. In Menssen case, she was exposed to asbestos in 1960 where it took more time than regular. Prognosis is also difficult as the symptoms are subtle and the doctors themselves fail to diagnose mesothelioma properly. Treatment options include palliative methods aimed at relieving pain rather than killing the rumor cells causing the cancer.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Those who believe they have been exposed should seek routine medical checkups with a qualified physician for signs of asbestos exposure. The time taken for this trial is four weeks. Menssen received $10 million from Honeywell and $3.5 as compensatory damages and $4.37 million from Pneumo Abex as punitive damages.

Source: asbestos.net

Houston Mesothelioma Lawyers

Mesothelioma victims often end up with that cancer because of employers’ negligence and hence they tend to make settlements with employers either in court or out of the court. It all depends on how well you have built your case against your employer. In this kind of settlements, a lawyer is your best friend. Not any lawyer, but an attorney with good track record of dealing such cases. Where there are many lawyers or attorneys around US but Houston has got the biggest such group, dealing with mesothelioma or asbestos lawsuits.


http://www.houstonmesotheliomalaw.com/ is a Houston based group of lawyers who are specialized in such cases. Search around the net and you will find many of them. The important factor is to make sure you find an attorney with whom you are comfortable dealing your mesothelioma case. The amount of compensation you get depends on many factors like relationship of the employer to the employees, extent of illness etc. Lawyers are your best resources.

One thing to note is, for instance in Texas even if you have settled an asbestosis claim before or a pleural plaque claim, which if considered as non-cancerous, a new claim can be made if cancer has developed after the initial claim. These are the kind of things only experienced attorneys would know hence, taking legal advice be it from Houston lawyers or Delaware lawyers or any such group is important.

Radiation therapy as a treatment for Mesothelioma

In this post I will discuss one of the treatments to treat mesothelioma. The treatment is Intensity-modulated radiation Therapy (IMRT). IMRT is a kind of radiation therapy which uses x-rays of high energy to kill mesothelioma cancer cells to destroy the tumors.


Two types of radiation therapy are

1) External radiation therapy

2) Internal radiation therapy

External radiation therapy uses a machine to beam x-rays into the body where the mesothelioma cells are located. Proper care has to be taken in this method as some times good cells adjacent to the bad cells could also get damaged. IMRT is a type of three-dimensional therapy. A computer delivers the radiation as it moves around the patient’s body. The machine can shape the beams; adjust the strength of the beams and the angle at which they are delivered.

Internal radiation therapy also called at brachytherapy is a process in which chemicals are introduced to produce radiation at the mesothelioma cancer affected location in the body. A thin plastic tube is used and is inserted into the chest or abdomen.

Mesothelioma tumors are not discrete solid tumors but are usually spread over a large area and because of this it is very difficult to deliver radiation in sufficient doses properly to kill the tumor without damaging good cells. For this reason, radiation is mainly used to kill the remaining tumors after a surgery. Another usage of radiation is to relieve symptoms of mesothelioma. However, radiation has its side effects as in the process good cells can also get damaged.

Source: mesothelioma-data.com