Have you been injured on the job and can't
work? The loss of your income combined with medical expenses can be devastating. You may
be entitled to receive benefits through the workers compensation system. This could
mean replacement of your lost wages, and the payment of your medical bills. Receiving workers' compensation benefits is
your right, but the law is very complex.
You need to report the injury and seek medical
attention within 30 days. The legal steps can get complicated. The insurance companies
are not going to make it easy for you. Even if your claim has already been denied,
The Helios Legal Group may be able to help.
And there are no up-front fees. Don't be a victim. Get the help you deserve.
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For most people who suffer from asbestos disease,
it is a lung disease. So, being unable to breathe is always a first
sign of asbestos problems. You can have an asbestos induced cancer. Particularly mesothelioma that may be of your
stomach, as opposed to your lung.
Mesothelioma does not show up sometimes for
25 or 30 years after your exposure. That's the same for asbestos lung cancer and
for asbestosis. So, we literally have to determine where the
person worked 25 and 30 years ago. And what products were on that job site.
And sometimes we handle cases for spousal
or family exposures. So, if somebody in your family is exposed
to asbestos dust that you bring home on your clothing, that person is at risk. We've handled cases for family members who
died as a result of asbestos dust. Brought home on the clothing of someone else
in the family.
For more information, please go to our website
Koonz.Com..
Mesothelioma victims often complain of amazing
shortness of breath. What causes this? Hi. I'm Joe Williams. I'm a mesothelioma trial
attorney in New York City.
And I can tell you that almost every client who I've ever
represented who was diagnosed with mesothelioma complained of shortness of breath. And this
is generally caused by fluid on the chest. It's something that the doctors call a 'pleural
effusion.' Now we have a diagram here to help us discuss this a little better. And in this
diagram, what we see here -- this area here -- this is the human lung.
And this area outside
of this, these are ribs. It's a cross-section. So these are the ribs, the bony ribs. And
this section here -- you see it, it's in off white -- this is the area of the pleura.
And
the pleura are the saran wrap like wrapping on the outside of the lung. And almost adhering
to the lung itself is the visceral pleura and almost adherent to the inside of the ribcage
is the parietal pleura. And what happens as we breathe -- breathing is an involuntary
process. So our diaphragm is a muscle in our abdomen, which involuntarily on its own (we
don't have to work to do it) it just causes our lungs to push up and down, it causes us
to breathe.
And when that happens our lungs move within our ribcage. And if it wasn't
for the pleura our lungs would scrape against the inside of the ribcage. But what happens
is there's a little bit of fluid between the parietal pleura (which again is on the inside
of the ribs) and the visceral pleura (which is adherent to the outside of the lungs) and
that fluid between the two pleural surfaces allows our lungs to move easily with no pain,
no discomfort inside our bony ribcage. But when someone gets a cancerous tumor - as is
represented in this photograph, this is the mesothelioma tumor -- when someone develops
this tumor it's kind of like when you bang your knee.
What happens to your knee? It swells.
Our body has an inflammatory response. It's the same way with mesothelioma. In this pleural
space between the parietal (against the ribs) and the visceral pleura (against the lungs),
in that space between those two pleural surfaces instead of just a little bit of fluid to allow
the lungs to move now there's a lot of fluid. And then a lot more fluid.
And what happens
when fluid develops in this space? Well, the bony ribs can't be moved, the fluid can't
push them out of the way. So what does it do? It pushes into the spongy lung tissue
and contracts this spongy lung tissue and causes shortness of breath. The victim (the
patient) feels like they can't get a full breath because their lungs can't expand and
that's from a pleural effusion. Now what do doctors do in order to deal with a pleural
effusion? Well it's very simple.
The doctors do something called a "thoracentesis." That's
a complicated medical word that just means that they put a needle in -- usually in the
side -- and they drain the fluid out. Some clients of mine over the years have had up
to 2 large soda bottles of fluid drained from this pleural space. And the great thing about
this process is the patient feels so much better afterwards because now they can breathe
better because now that fluid is out of there. And during this procedure, sometimes the doctors
will do something called "a talc pleurodesis." It's a complicated word but all it means is
they take talc and during this surgical procedure they insert the talc between the two layers
of pleura, between the visceral pleura and the parietal pleura.
They insert some talc
in there. Why do they do that? Because it causes scarring, which in this circumstance
is a good thing because it causes the two pleural surfaces to scar together and no more
fluid will be generated. So it relieves the potential for getting more buildup of fluid
in that area. So these are some of the things that are done to deal with fluid buildup as
it relates to mesothelioma in the chest.
I'm sure you have many more questions about mesothelioma
and all the medical interventions that can be done to help relieve some of the serious
symptoms that victims of mesothelioma have. I'm Joe Williams and in my office we deal
with these cases every day. We represent victims of mesothelioma each and every day. Look at
the number below and I encourage you to give us a call and we'll answer your questions
about your mesothelioma diagnosis.
A family member's been diagnosed with mesothelioma
and you're wondering do they have any legal rights? Hi. I'm Joe Williams. I'm a mesothelioma
trial attorney in New York City. And I can give you some information about this topic
and it's a very important one.
Because workers in industry and various trades throughout
the past century often work for decades with their hands, building America and working
with asbestos products. And these same workers are the folks who 30, 40, 60 years later have
been now diagnosed with mesothelioma. And they are put in a position of taking a path
down into their history, into their past, to try and figure out how they could have
been exposed to asbestos. Well what I can tell you is that every day at my office, we
represent people who are suffering with mesothelioma.
We represent them and their families as they
take this journey to try and figure out how they contracted this terrible disease. And
what we do in all of these cases is we look for companies -- the defendants, as they're
called -- who could have exposed our clients to asbestos. And when we're able to find those
companies were through a very thorough investigation and a lot of research into these cases, we
then proceed to demonstrate in court how those companies fail to warn our clients about the
dangers of asbestos. You see, under the law in various states (and certainly New York
State, there's a duty to warn of known dangers.
Known dangers to end users, perhaps like you
or your family member who worked with these asbestos products. And that failure to warn
about the known hazard -- hazard being cancer, mesothelioma -- creates liability on these
corporate entities. Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this because you have questions
about mesothelioma and the legal process as it relates to mesothelioma. And we can provide
answers to those questions.
I'm Joe Williams and every day we represent victims of mesothelioma.
We can answer your questions as well. I hope you found this video informative and I thank
you very much for watching..
