About My Dad
“Everybody Loved Him and He Never Met a Stranger.”
My dad was a people person. Everyone loved him. He never met a person that he couldn’t be friends with. He was outgoing, loved sports, and was very active in his community. A member of different clubs, local clubs, church clubs, outgoing groups. Just a very active person. A very wonderful disposition.
The cause of my dad’s death was severe asbestosis.
My dad worked at a fertilizer plant in Convent, Louisiana. He did kind of just technical things around the plant as far as cutting pipes, pipe fittings, welding, and certain industrial things around the plant. He kept things going, kept things in shape. Just general maintenance, contractor maintenance, the normal day in and day out of a contractor at a plant.
I’m not aware that my dad knew that he was being exposed to asbestos at the fertilizer plant. He’s never made me personally or the family aware. At any point in time. He was never warned of any type of dangers or harmful products or chemicals or anything at the plant.
Diagnosis of Severe Asbestosis
“We Heard the Words, But It Didn’t Sink In.”
The diagnosis of severe asbestos affected my dad in many ways. Over time, he became more labored in breathing. He couldn’t do the normal activities that he was able to do before. It was kind of at first a slow progression, and then towards the end it kind of just sped up where he couldn’t really even walk even 10 steps without having to take a break just to breathe. The quality of life decreased dramatically over time. It was subtle at first and then toward the end it really just went down very debilitating for him. He wasn’t, I guess, happy as he used to be before, because there were things he wanted to do, but that he couldn’t do because of the asbestosis.
When my dad was first diagnosed, I think it was a shock, but not a realistic shock to the family. In other words, we heard the words, but it didn’t sink in. At that time, up until that point, all we knew was that he was having some minor trouble breathing, kind of getting around doing some of the things that he did. So he went to a routine visit to a doctor and they heard a noise and they wanted to get that checked out because they said it wasn’t normal.
Then once we got the diagnosis, originally it started off as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, meaning they didn’t understand or know the cause of it. It wasn’t through time that we realized that it was related through asbestos. At first, it didn’t play a major role because it was more of a slow progressing disease at first. He was still able to do the day in and day out, but he was getting winded quite often. As time went on, then we realized, no, this is serious. And that I think hit the family hard when it was kind of real. He started going down very quickly and it started to be just a burden on him and the family.
Impact On My Dad
“I Should Be Able to Do This and I Can't.”
It started affecting his job. He was a motor coach operator for a company here locally, and one of the things he always liked to do was interact and help people. Well, he couldn’t do as simple things as handle the luggage for those that were going to be traveling. So simple things like that and the clients would have to help that out. And he’s a very proud person. So for the fact that somebody had to help him do his job, that was a hit for him personally.
Then he had a machine that he had to carry around with him everywhere. So the impact kept getting worse and worse as time went on to the point where he was basically just sitting down on the sofa all day because he couldn’t really move, maybe get something here or there.
Other than that, he was relegated to just being on a sofa all day. That’s not a way for anybody to live. That wasn’t a way for him to live. That’s not what he wanted to do. That’s not what he wanted to put his family through. But really, what else can you do at that point? There’s no cure. There’s no treatment. We had to, as a family, it impacted us. We had to sit here and watch it. But for him, that was his life. That was his livelihood. That was everything for him. Just to even stand up was a burden.
He was the primary caregiver for the house. So not being able to work, not being able to provide for his family, that hit him hard. It really dropped his morale and his outlook with things. He always tried to keep a positive attitude more because he was worried about how it would look for the family than how it would actually affect him. He was always worried about his family and just not being able to do some of the things that in his mind, he thought he should have been able to do, had a very negative impact on him.
Impact On Our Family
“It Changed the Way of Life that We Had.”
It was rough for the family. The impact on the family was greater because we wanted him to be happy and not have to worry about things. But we can see the struggle that he was going through because he wanted to do certain things. In his mind it was irrational. So for the family, watching him go through that was really rough. Not to mention just the roughness of the disease itself. The asbestosis caused a lot of having to go to appointments, having to basically change the way of life that we had to go through. We had to change routines. We had to work around everything we had to do as far as doctor’s appointments, treatments, and things of that nature.
The good thing about where I live was right next door to my parents. So luckily I was able to see my dad quite often. So we did get to spend some time, have a few conversations here and there. Of course, I still work, so I’m trying to balance the day job with getting to spend time with him while they were doing doctor treatments and other visits. So it was a balance that we had to do. But I did get to spend a good bit of time with my dad.
Choosing a Law Firm
My mom and dad chose Baron and Budd, primarily from a referral from a previous client of Baron & Budd. Somebody my dad knew really well had a daughter who works for a law firm, not the same law firm as Baron & Budd, but it was a referral from her that said, “we think Baron and Budd is going to be the right firm to try your case.” So it was a referral from a friend’s daughter, that is why we chose Baron and Budd.
And as it turned out, Baron and Budd, in our family’s opinion, was the right law firm.
The Legal Process
“Baron and Budd Was Absolutely the Right Choice for Our Family for this Case.”
There was never a time that Baron and Budd got in the way. In fact, Baron and Budd have gone out of their way to make sure that they weren’t a burden on the family. Baron and Budd made it a point to try to work around our schedules to the best degree possible. They checked well in advance to make sure we had no conflicts when it came to times, or doctor’s appointments or any other things going on in our lives to make sure that it had the most minimal impact as possible to our family.
There was never a time that anybody was not available from Baron and Budd. In fact, we often didn’t even have to reach out because Chris did such a good job at checking in with us on a periodic basis that if something even came up, by the time it came up, he was already checking in on us. So we never really had to reach out that much because Baron and Budd took care of everything and they kept us informed.
The Outcome
“I Don't Think There Was Any Way that the Opposing Side Could Have Done.”
The lawyers were phenomenal. So we had two lawyers that primarily worked in our case. We had Chris and David who both represented our family in the case. Chris did a lot of the pre-work. We did the depositions with him. He was very thorough. And then David Cannella tried the case for us. And when I tell you I have not seen a more stellar ability of a person to try our case, David was phenomenal. He had the jury fully attentive during the whole entire trial. He had all his facts lined up. The expert witnesses that he had attest to the case were stellar, top notch. I don’t think there was any way that the opposing side could have done anything to counteract all the facts that he brought to the case.
The outcome of the trial was a positive judgment for our family. It was one of the highest judgements that was ever done in the state of Louisiana for a case like this dealing with asbestos.
Advice for Others
“It's Very Important to Get in as Early as Possible.”
If somebody came to me and was diagnosed or a family member was diagnosed with either asbestosis or mesothelioma, the first thing I would tell them is to seek all of the treatment options out there. There’s always more than one treatment option. Get second opinions, but most importantly, understand that there are people out there that can help, whether it’s financially or just moral support. Look out for groups, hands down.
I would tell them to seek help right away from a law firm. I would definitely recommend them to reach out to Baron and Budd to see if there’s anything that they can do to help in their case. Based on our experience, I wouldn’t recommend anyone else.
It’s very important to get in as early as possible. In our case, we were able to do a videotape testimonial of my dad before he passed away, and because we were able to do that after he died, we were able to use that video testimony in the trial. So it’s very important to start that process earlier because you don’t know what’s going to happen down the line. You may not have that opportunity if you wait too long. So the earlier you can get in, the better.
