The words “I have Chronic Beryllium Disease” tumbled around in my brain, even before getting the final diagnosis. Internet searches came up with not so pleasant reports of scarring over of lung tissues and eventual death. Physical death is inevitable for everyone, but I’d prefer it not be from a progressive disease begotten from the job I had when I was seventeen. The doctor assured me that it is not a death sentence and that if we see progression, there are effective treatments available.
As I shared with friends and family members, the questions, “Did you talk to a lawyer?”, or “Can you sue
the former employer?” always came up.
Of course, I researched the idea, but in the end I decided not to for
several reasons. Many friends and family
have said that I’m sort of a life philosopher, so here is my philosophy on the
subject.
The question I had to ask myself, first was How angry am I about this? Typically
when you perceive that you have been wronged, the first impulse may be to get
an attorney and to try to fix the wrong…How
angry was I and what would it accomplish and how long would it take? Then, if I chose to sue, as I went through the
long process, how much more upset would it make me and would it gnaw away my
insides.
That’s when I gave thought to
how much of my personal life had I lost up to this point and how much would a
long drawn out lawsuit take up of my present personal life, my emotional life, my
financial life and my physical health going forward. I never lost a dime
of income from Chronic Beryllium Disease and my personal life was not impacted. I had a long business career and am now retired
Besides, the beryllium plant I worked in didn’t keep it a
secret that the element was hazardous. I
think back to the days to when we showered at the end of the workday. We would joke and chuckle about washing off
all of the beryllium so that we didn’t get Berylliosis (new name Chronic
Beryllium Disease CBD). I guess we
laughed not because we didn’t take it seriously, but just because the odds of
getting it seemed so great.
I remembered the times when I was a lab technician and I
carried around hot beryllium tubes in what were likely asbestos gloves. The thought never crossed my mind that I could
get any kind of disease despite the warnings.
Here I am at 70 years old, and I have CBD. The bottom line is…CBD never cost me a day of
work and I don’t believe that it had any impact on my previous life. So the question became…do I see an attorney or do I take the settlement money that is offered
by the Department of Labor and sign away my future right to sue in the future?
It was a seemingly big, complex decision, but in my mind it
became a fairly simple one. Since I wasn’t
willing to take the time it could take for an attorney to “possibly” get me any
money or how much would be left after the attorney fee was deducted, I decided
to take the government’s offer. For a
government process, it turned out to be fairly easy and relatively
painless. I filed all the paper work, included the medical analysis from National Jewish Health and within two months
I received my lump sum stipend. In
addition to the lump sum payment, they pay for 100% of medical treatments, care
and associated travel expenses that I incur related to Chronic Beryllium
Disease for the rest of my life. The money was a help, but of course, I would rather have full
lung function, especially since I was never a smoker, but...it is what it is.
In my head, I’m
singing a couple of lines from the John Mellencamp song, Jack and Diane, “Oh yeah,
life goes on. Long after the thrill of
living is gone.” My life is going on quite well, and damn...I loved that job when I was seventeen. Sing it with me: “When I was seventeen…it was a
very good year” – thank you Old Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.
