£7,500 compensation award
Asbestosis is a disease which has affected many workers in East Belfast down the decades for it was not appreciated that working with this substance was dangerous. If just one spore enters the lungs the consequences can be very serious, often fatal and the symptoms can lie dormant for decades.
The least invasive form of this disease is called pleural plaques. Essentially this means that the asbestos lies dormant in the lung and will be seen by a radiographer, reported to a patient and this causes a great deal of anxiety in case it escalates to full blown fatal asbestosis.
In this particular case a widow instructed us for her husband during his working life had been exposed to asbestos, was told that he had pleural plaques and then asbestosis was entered on his death certificate amongst other causes of death. After a full investigation by us it was concluded by an expert that the death certificate was in fact incorrect and the gentleman did not die even in part from asbestosis.
The fact he had pleural plaques, however, caused him undue worry and distress during his lifetime and his widow was entitled to damages albeit relatively modest so a sum was negotiated and there was a measure of relief that her loved one had not in fact on this occasion died of asbestosis which had that actually been the case would have attracted a much higher damages payment.
