Oppose Senate Bill 1125El Cajon, CA
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August 14, 2003
The Honorable George Allen
Dear Senator Allen: I am writing to express my very strong opposition to S. 1125, the so-called "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act." I lost my husband to malignant mesothelioma nine years ago. Malignant mesothelioma has only one cause -- asbestos exposure. My husband was a very healthy man of 50 who had always taken very good care of himself. He was a detective sergeant for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. While serving in the United States Navy in the early 60's he was exposed to asbestos working on new construction of two submarines. One Sunday morning in 1994 my husband fell surfing. The surfboard hit him in the chest. He had a lot of pain and thought he had broken some ribs. After a week or so the pain had not gone away and he went to the doctor. After many tests they found pleural fluid in his chest cavity and he had chest surgery. We found the pleural mesothelioma cancer. It was so advanced and had grown throughout the left side of his chest in the pleural lining between his lung and chest cavity reaching down to his pancreas. It also filed the area between the left and right lung and in front of his heart. The cancer was so advanced they just closed his chest and told us chemotherapy was the only answer. The doctors said there was an experimental drug, "taxol" being tested and it was our only hope. No other drug had proved successful against mesothelioma. We had to give it a try. Along with this nightmare going on in our lives we also had to fight our medical insurance to get the experimental drug. Eventually he did receive the taxol because of a very supportive VA doctor working late into the night to get my husband in to the VA hospital. The chemotherapy was awful and my husband went through so much pain. He was on massive doses of morphine, both the regular and time released pills. The taxol didn't work and he died a very painful death 4 ½ months later. My world came crashing down. Our youngest and last child had been married seven months before. Now, for my husband and I, was going to be "our time together." Our children were raised and we had so many plans. We never got that chance thanks to the asbestos companies. At the time of my husband's death we had 2 grandchildren - a 2 year old grandson and a 4 month old grandaughter. I now have 7 grandchildren, 4 grandsons and 3 grandaughters. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of my husband and the joy he would have had seeing our family now. S. 1125 offers $750,000 compensation for all losses for the families of those suffering or who died from mesothelioma no matter what the personal circumstances. This bill takes away the right of all mesothelioma patients who have been poisoned with asbestos to a jury trial and bails out the companieswho poisoned them. Isn't it every citizen's right to a fair trial in our country? Some patients have already won their cases and are now waiting through the appeals process. This bill would throw out all of these cases also. I am outraged that a bill like S. 1125 would even be considered. Is there no justice for dying patients and their families against these huge corporations? We must hold the wrongdoers accountable!!!!! S. 1125 is a very bad bill and MUST be defeated. I anxiously await its defeat. Sincerely, Cecile J. Walters { to read Doug Walters' medical profile, please click here }
*** POSTED ON AUGUST 15, 2003 *** |