When someone in your family is diagnosed with mesothelioma, it opens the door to pain, anger, heartache, and grief. But imagine the same thing happening twice in your family. That is exactly what happened to the Pond family of Australia. This week a judge awarded the couple’s daughter more than $600,000, to be paid to her by the New South Wales (NSW) government.
Woman’s Mesothelioma Follows Husband’s Death from Same Asbestos-Related Disease
According to Dian and David Pond’s daughter Davina Armitage, her father died of malignant mesothelioma in 2009, decades after he’d handled, installed, and removed asbestos-contaminated materials while working for the NSW Department of Railways. Twelve years later, her mother began manifesting symptoms of the same disease.
Ms. Armitage said that her mother had survived a 1985 bout with breast cancer and another round of cancer treatments for her thyroid and a small growth on her lung, but that the mesothelioma diagnosis entirely defeated her. “You could see in her face she knew this was not something she could beat,” she said.
Second-Hand Asbestos Exposure Blamed for Mesothelioma
Four months before her mesothelioma death, Mrs. Pond filed suit against the government, and after she died, her daughter continued her case. The claim pointed to the asbestos she’d shaken off his dusty clothing prior to laundering it in her home, blaming that second-hand exposure for her illness. The state conceded their negligence, though they argued against having to pay the compensation that she was seeking.
In her comments on the mesothelioma claim, Judge Wendy Strathdee spoke to Mrs. Pond’s tragedy, saying, “She had seen her husband die of the same condition, she had witnessed his suffering and knew what was ahead of her.” As to the daughter’s quest for justice, the judge, wrote, “Listening to her evidence, often through her tears, was heartbreaking. She was a woman placed in a terrible situation of having to care physically and emotionally for her mother who was dying of the same condition that caused her father’s death.”
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net are here to help you with the challenges ahead. Contact us today at 1-800-692-8608.
