Asbestosis Disease Victim's Retirement Years Anything But Golden

September 17, 2012, 2:30PM. By Gordon Gibb

Whitwell, UKIt may have happened in England. And the family of a UK man who died from pneumonia complicated by asbestosis may not be quite ready to launch an asbestosis lawsuit just yet. Be that as it may, the one thing about asbestos is that it knows no bounds. And what happened to Michael Ward, from Whitwell, near North Yorkshire, could happen anywhere, at anytime to anyone exposed to asbestos fibers.

Ward was an engineer in the British Royal Navy from 1955 through 1963. Part of his job, at the time, involved toiling on board the HMS Ark Royal R09 air carrier. At an inquest into the death of his dad, Christopher Ward told of his father's descriptions of time spent in the boiler and engine rooms of the old battleship.

"He worked in the boiler and engine rooms and told me that the piping on those ships was laced with asbestos," Ward said, in comments published last month in the Dinnington Guardian (9/11/12) "The vibration of the planes taking off and landing would have made the fibers airborne and all on board would be more susceptible to asbestosis."

The elder Ward, according to the report, spent the latter years of his life chained to a wheelchair. His asbestosis disease required him to be on oxygen around the clock, 24/7.

He died at age 69, a relatively young age given modern life expectancies. A coroner concluded Ward's asbestosis—which was never in doubt—must have inhibited the function of the older man's lungs, leaving them more susceptible to infections such as pneumonia due to the presence of asbestosis pleural plaques.

The Ward family, as it turns out, is at odds with the hospital to which the elder Ward was taken when he turned ill. According to the Guardian report, the family had been told by officials at Bassetlaw Hospital that the elder Ward had been suffering from a perforated bowel deemed inoperable due to the patient's deterioration. But the diagnosis of pneumonia was allegedly not made known to the family until after he had died. Ward's official cause of death was industrial disease, due to his asbestosis lung cancer.

While the family will be taking matters up with the hospital, the victim's son told the Guardian the Royal Navy in the UK is also on the family's to-do list with regard to seeking justice and asbestosis compensation.

"We will also be following up our father's asbestosis with the Royal Navy—we want justice for our dad and other sufferers from the Forces out there," Ward said.

While the dangers of asbestos are well known today—to the point where asbestos removal involves an expensive and painstaking process akin to the most lethal hazardous materials—the dangers associated with the well-used fibers were little known by workers charged with toiling in environments containing various amounts of the lethal carcinogen. Asbestos used as an insulating material for onboard pipes and such in the shipping industry was commonplace.

Regulators and health experts have since concluded that asbestos is less dangerous if left undisturbed. However, the vibrations inherent with a moving ship can easily shake loose asbestos-based material lagging pipes on a ship.

Given the incubation period for asbestos lung disease—which can involve decades—it is not surprising that Ward began suffering from asbestosis cancer so many years after his posting in the Royal Navy. Many an asbestosis attorney is stick handling several cases related to asbestos exposure from decades prior.

The Ward family is hoping a successful asbestosis claim will lend justice to the sad plight of Michael Ward.