A Son Shares How Asbestos Exposure Changed His Family | Mesothelioma Hope

My name is Steve, and my father was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He was incredibly proud of being in the military. He was drafted and sent to Germany, where he served as a cook during the Vietnam War. Being a veteran was the proudest part of his life, and it was something he loved to share with others. He would always salute random strangers wearing veteran hats. When my brother signed up for the military, watching my dad take so much pride in seeing him follow the same path meant everything. He was truly special.

After coming home from the military, my dad got a job with the county as a mechanic’s helper. He worked in a garage where they were constantly blowing out brake pads and dust. The brake pads he worked with all contained asbestos, and he was exposed to it every day. We also had a summer house in Pennsylvania, and one summer while chopping wood and doing work around the house, he suddenly couldn’t breathe. It felt like a heavy weight on his chest. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors discovered he had a pleural effusion with five liters of fluid in his chest. After surgery, the doctor came in and told him he had mesothelioma.

At first, getting my dad to treatment was fairly easy because he was still somewhat healthy. About a year and a half in, it became extremely difficult. Physically, he just couldn’t handle it anymore. Every three weeks he was getting treatment, and every other week he was going in for MRIs and CAT scans. It became an exhausting cycle of treatment, scan, MRI, over and over again. It drained him, and it drained me. It was just a lot to handle.

What hurts the most is that I was really looking forward to making him a grandfather. I dreamed about bringing a baby home to him one day, and now I’ll never get to do that. There was no reason for him to die. Asbestos is what caused all of this.

We decided to pursue a lawsuit because this wasn’t my dad’s fault, and what happened to him wasn’t fair. He deserved compensation for what he went through. The law firm did so much for us. They helped us navigate the entire situation and were always checking in—asking how we were doing, how my dad’s treatments were going, and genuinely caring. I developed a real relationship with them. They would call just to see how my dad was doing, even when they didn’t have to. That meant so much to us.

Even months after my father passed away, they still called to check in. They felt like family. We felt like we were part of their team, and that they were truly there to take care of us. It was never about what they were going to get out of it. They wanted us to feel supported, safe, and cared for during one of the hardest times of our lives.