Women seeks compensation after work illness
A woman is preparing to take legal action against her former employer, after she developed cancer as a result of her working environment.
The woman developed the asbestos-related mesothelioma.
She had noticed symptoms only towards the end of last year at the Christmas period, when she discovered that she found it hard to breathe. Over the holiday time she found that her condition continued to get worse.
When she arrived back home, she went to the hospital where she found that she needed to have six pints of fluid drained from her lungs. In spring this year it was confirmed that she had the mesothelioma condition.
Legal help sought for compensation
The woman decided to contact personal injury lawyers to make a claim for compensation due to the condition that she now has to deal with. Also backed by her trade union, the woman is preparing to take her former employer to court on the grounds of professional negligence that caused her to be exposed to the fatal substance asbestos.
The woman explained that she was initially exposed to asbestos, between 1973 and 1976, when she was employed as a part time clerical assistant in the organisation’s branch. She took time off from work but returned to the organisation as a Revenue Executive in Epsom between 1984 and 1988, and then back in Croydon between 1988 and 1996.
The woman recalls that some of her duties involved taking files and documents down to a storage room, which she described as ‘dusty’.
She also describes other duties such as going down to a boiler room to read the meter and order fuel when needed. At one time the boiler became flooded and external contractors were needed to remove asbestos from the boiler room.
The contractors brought in equipment that would be used to wash away the asbestos material, but in doing so the workers would leave a door, which provided access to the employee car park, wide open. The workers themselves however were wearing protective masks and suits.
Family left devastated by woman’s news
The woman explained that her mesothelioma diagnosis has been devastating news for herself and for her family. In particular, her husband, who is disabled, and a former civil servant who suffers from the effects of polio – a condition which the man was affected with when he was younger. The woman herself is the carer for her husband.
She said: “This has upset me and my family greatly. I am in constant pain down my right side and I am taking a cocktail of various medications including strong painkillers which I take during the night as well.”
The woman also added that: “I have also had four sessions of chemotherapy but these have not been effective and I am waiting on a decision on the next course of treatment.”
The woman is also using this situation as a time to call on former employees at the same organisation to come forward and check of they have been affected by the same condition.
Updated on 10/28/2010