Featured Client Stories

At the age of 56, while working as a correctional officer in Daytona Beach, Florida, David Fortier visited the doctor complaining of breathing difficulties he believed were from a bad cold. The doctor suspected bronchitis and wrote a prescription. When the medication didn’t relieve his symptoms, Fortier returned to his physician. An x-ray revealed that his lungs were filled with fluid. Fortier went through a battery of tests, ultimately having a biopsy that led to a diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma.

At the age of 73, Erwin Bergquist was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelial lining of the lungs and is caused by asbestos exposure.  Mesothelioma has a long latency period and can develop decades after asbestos exposure occurs.

In February of 2007, at the age of 65, Lloyd Higgins was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive and deadly cancer that most often affects the lining of the lungs. It can also begin in or spread to the stomach lining, the lining of the heart and other organs. As the disease progresses, it typically spreads throughout the body via the lymph system. Mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure.

In November, 2005, at the age of 77, Edward Walton visited his physician for difficulty breathing.  After several tests, Mr. Walton and his family were troubled to learn that he had two separate types of lung cancer related to asbestos exposure.  This difficult diagnosis came in addition to a diagnosis of asbestosis.  Asbestosis is a painful and breath-stealing condition resulting from the build up of scar tissue in the lungs.  After microscopic asbestos fibers are inhaled, they lodge in the victim’s lung tissue, and, over the course of decades, build more and more scar tissue until the lungs lose their ability to expand and contract efficiently.    

At the age of 52, after visiting his doctor for shortness of breath and a persistent cough, Steven Pelley was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Mesothelioma is a rare and fatal type of lung cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos, and is even more rare among people as young as Mr. Pelley.  While some people diagnosed with mesothelioma can’t identify where they might have been exposed to asbestos, Mr. Pelley knew: it was during his time working for Peerless Pumps and Floway in Fresno, California.