Asbestos in your body – it never goes away

Asbestos claim specialists Corries have won a five figure claim for asbestos pleural thickening for an 83 year old former welder.

Corries are nationwide experts in asbestos claims. Can we help you? Call us FREE On 0800 083 7839.

Asbestos Case Facts

The gentleman Mr A worked as a welder and steam pipe fitter at many different industrial sites and power stations. His work took him round the UK and to Germany. He worked from the early 1960’s up until the 1980’s and was exposed to asbestos most days.

He trained to deal with all types of welding and worked a great deal in boiler stripping and replacement. Cutting into asbestos lagged boilers and pipes was a regular part of his job. The asbestos would flake off and cover him and his workmates.

He used a hammer to chip off old dry asbestos off lagged equipment. His other workmates and tradesmen would be making their own dust close by.

Mr A is a lifelong non smoker. He had been diagnosed with asthma but had no problems with it..

Asbestos Case – Previous rejection

Mr A wondered if his asbestos was playing a part in his health in 2006. He applied for benefits but was told he did not meet the criteria. As a result he put thoughts of asbestos disease to bed.

He enjoyed reasonable health. During 2014 to 2015 he had started to notice breathing problems and pain down his side. He had tests and then a biopsy was taken. Thankfully it was benign. The investigations however showed a lot of pleural thickening and pleural effusion.

Mr A was not told by his doctors that this could be due to the asbestos he had breathed in.

He saw Corries advert about pleural thickening and called us.

What did we do?

At Corries we know asbestos can never be forgotten. Our team know that pleural damage due to asbestos can come on at any time. We took up the case for him.

We got Mr A’s medical records and carefully went through them.  Mr A had suffered a blood clot/ DVT in his leg. We checked what affect his other health conditions had on him. As a non smoker and with controlled asthma we thought asbestos must be playing a part.

The records did not tie his problems with his asbestos exposure but we sent them to one of our panel of specialist asbestos doctors. We got a radiologist to check the x rays and scans. Both doctors produced reports that made the clear link between the effusion, thickening and his ongoing symptoms.

Our medical expert thought Mr A was 60% disabled. Allowing for age and long term asthma he still felt that he was 20% disabled due to his asbestos exposure.

On the basis of this evidence we were able to put the case to the defendants.  Having carefully ruled out any other exposure or other condition due to his health they quickly responded and we were able to settle with a strong five figure settlement.

Corries own page on asbestos pleural thickening is here if you want more information

Case comment

Corries Solicitor, Charlie Bradley who won the case said

“Many people with asbestos disease may have made claims for benefits in the past and failed.  However asbestos never stops reacting in the body.  For this reason it was pleasing to see that when Mr A was suffering again investigations gave us the tools to  pinpoint asbestos as the cause and help to secure compensation.

Hopefully at his age Mr A can enjoy his compensation. He can be reasonably hopeful whilst his asbestos disease is playing a part in his life he should live a good few years yet. I truly wish he sees his days out without any further asbestos problems.

His case shows that there is no sell by date with asbestos. You can hope that it won’t ever get worse – but you can never be sure”

Have you previously looked into a claim for asbestos and hit a brick wall?  Give us a call and see if we can help you. Call us FREE now on 0800 083 7839 for a free no obligation chat.