McQueen history of asbestos exposure
Steve McQueen was the top paid actor in 1974. He was also a father and a husband with a great love for his family. Best known for his acting in films such as The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and Sand Pebbles, he also identified as a race car driver. Nearly 34 years after his death November 7, 1980, mesothelioma cases are still running rampant.
Steve was exposed to asbestos throughout his life construction sites, sound stages, the lining of racing car breaks, and so after. His most powerful exposure to asbestos, however, took place in his time with the US Marines when he was required to remove asbestos lagging pipes. Steve himself is quoted saying that asbestos was so thick in the air, he could barely breathe. Some say Steve McQueen has lived the American dream, transcending disadvantaged origins and rise to fame and success. But it was during his time in the blue collar work and to serve his country when it was most subjected to asbestos who would kill him.
Mesothelioma Diagnosis & Death
When Steve was diagnosed in 1979, he was given no hope. It has been assured by doctors that his illness was incurable and essentially incurable. In fact, his then-girlfriend Barbara Minty has not even been told by doctors that pleural mesothelioma was caused by exposure to asbestos.
"LA Doctors basically told us to enjoy the time we left," she said in an interview 26 years after Steve past. "I do not remember exactly what they told me about the options. All I remember is that the doctors said the surgery was out of the question and the chemo does not really work. He was a rare cancer and all their patients had died. "
The couple refused to let the diagnostic rule their lives, however, and was married after her terminal diagnosis. In the following months, Steve went to Mexico. Motivated by his lack of options in the United States, he sought a non-traditional treatment during his first visit and went into surgery for abdominal inoperable tumors during his second visit. He was in the hours after the surgery he died of cardiac arrest.
The real tragedy of Steve's story and other mesothelioma deaths of history is that their deaths were preventable. The dangers of asbestos exposure were known in the 1930s, but firms continued to use asbestos-containing products without warning at the cost of thousands of lives.
Unfortunately, even today, about 3,000 people in the US each year are diagnosed with mesothelioma. Many of them have never been warned against the dangers of asbestos exposure.
Barbara Minty McQueen, in memory of Steve, is working with the Organization of awareness to diseases of asbestos, a nonprofit organization focused on the prevention of disease caused by asbestos national and education, advocacy and community international initiatives. In July 2014, Barbara traveled to Washington, DC, and spoke to the House of Representatives on the importance of prohibiting the use of asbestos in America.
families who have been affected by mesothelioma deaths may hold them responsible for the exposure to asbestos companies close their officials through civil litigation system by filing a mesothelioma lawsuit. Simmons Hanly Conroy has over 40 mesothelioma lawyers who have helped thousands of people and their families across the country ensure justice against companies that aggrieved.
If you or a loved one suffers from mesothelioma, click here to learn more about how we can help mesothelioma patients and their families.
