Note: Names have been changed to retain the anonymity of the entities/individual.
Growing up on a farm in Livingston, Connecticut, Laura understood very well what good health was. As a young farm girl, she cherished life with the love of her family and her relatively good health. 37 years later, she still paid close attention to her health. From walking miles to spending long hours at the yoga class, Laura did everything to stay young and healthy. Due to her efforts, even in her late 40s, she looked 30. Thus, when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, Laura and her family were shocked to their senses. It took some time for Laura to accept the doctor’s announcement of a cancer that had been growing inside her for a long time.
It all began on 23 October 1989, when Laura suffered from exhaustion and shortness of breath at one of her yoga classes. She first perceived her situation as over-exercise fatigue, but when the condition prevailed for days, she sensed a serious problem within her body. Soon Laura experienced excessive coughing with blood effusion. This worried her and she rushed to the hospital. At the Yale New Haven Medical Center, Dr. Wilmer examined Laura and ran some chest scans. Upon examining the chest films, the doctors diagnosed Laura with mesothelioma of the right pleura.
When doctors declared asbestos exposure as the cause of her problem, Laura remembered her youthful days at her family farmhouse, which was loaded with asbestos like every other house in those days. The walls, floors, furnace, etc. all were made with asbestos. Though some remodeling happened over the years on the house, nonetheless, no precautionary measures were used.
Dr. Wilmer at Yale Medical Center surgically removed two tumors from Laura’s right lung. He further informed her about the grave chances of her living longer than six months to a year, as mesothelioma is a deadly cancer. She had no choice than to mentally prepare herself for the doctors’ ultimatum. Additionally, after the surgery, Laura underwent painful rounds of Adriomiacin and Cytoxen chemotherapy and 3,000 rads. of radiation.
The six months ultimatum of Dr. Wilmer for Laura passed. So did a year, and then five years passed. Mysteriously, despite the saddening prediction made by him, the tumor did not return and Laura survived the period. This continued for more than 10 years, during which Laura had regular medical follow-ups with Dr. Wilmer and later with her local physician. In early 2000, Laura suffered from what was one of her most brutal and worst bronchitis. Every year, she used to endure yearly episodes of bronchitis that seemed worst and stayed longer each time. However, the January 2000’s occurrence would not lessen, even with antibiotics. Uncertain about her condition, doctors prescribed Laura with medications for asthma and other ailments.
When the situation prevailed, Laura sought professional advice from many doctors about her situation. Interestingly, none except Dr. Ferguson, a thoracic surgeon at Saint Francis Hospital, Hartford, predicted a reoccurrence of mesothelioma. This was because doctors concluded that reoccurrences of mesothelioma happen within a couple of years and as Laura survived that duration, her chances of developing it again were slim. Additionally, Laura’s chest x-rays showed no changes but only a mass revealed by a CT scan. The doctors professed the mass to be a scar tissue left from the previous surgery and radiation therapies. In order to confirm his analysis, Dr. Ferguson performed a needle biopsy that showed inconclusive results.
However, Dr. Ferguson feared to perform surgery for further biopsy as excessive bleeding from the large scar from prior surgery could have led to her death. However, on Laura’s persistence, Dr. Ferguson reluctantly performed an open biopsy on 21 April 2000. The tissue samples were sent to the laboratory for pathology, which came positive for malignant mesothelioma.
Laura desperately began searching for a surgeon as Dr. Ferguson refused to perform any further surgery on her. He feared that her tumor had reached at an advanced stage and he did not have the expertise to treat it. Time was running out for Laura. She was dying, and fast. Her tumor pressurized her chest so much that she could not breathe properly. Her heart was failing too. All she could do was either wait for the death to come by or hope for the cure.
A week later, Dr. Ferguson informed Laura that a cancer specialist and an experienced thoracic surgeon, Dr. David Bloom from Boston, was visiting Yale-New Haven Medical Center. He further advised Laura to consult him for her treatment.
Laura set an appointment with Dr. Bloom and met him on May 15, 2000. Upon examining her, Dr. Bloom immediately decided for a pneumectomy to eradicate as much tumor as he could. During the surgery, Dr. Bloom witnessed unusual activity inside Laura’s chest cavity. He found that the tumor had entered the pericardium and had a consistency of a wood. It had also exerted pressure on the lung because of which, the size of Laura’s lung decreased to that of a fist. However, he successfully removed much of Laura’s tumor, which had been gradually maturing inside her.
Miraculously, the size of Laura’s lung returned to quite a normal size after the surgery. However, the whole trauma left Laura in great pain and misery. The doctors at Yale discharged Laura after 2 weeks of hospitalization. She referred to her recovery period as “uncomfortable” and “painful”. Unfortunately, Laura died 6 months later on 17 October 2000.
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