NFL hall of famer Merlin Olsen lost his life to mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos, in March of 2010. A lawsuit that was filed by his widow, Susan Olsen, which initially listed NBC network as one of the defendants, but attorneys have dropped the network form the lawsuit.
Before his death Olsen asked his attorneys to “make a difference for other asbestos victims with this lawsuit.” The initial lawsuit named various companies like Sherwin Williams, 20th Century Fox, NBC and Lennox Industries. After a yearlong investigation, Olsen’s mesothelioma attorneys found that NBC was not responsible for exposing Merlin to asbestos.
Olsen was exposed to asbestos as a youth doing manual labor, and later in life while working in broadcasting as a sportscaster. According to one of his attorneys John Langdoc, “it is becoming clear that many of these companies knew some people would get cancer, and just did nothing to stop exposing people by putting asbestos in their consumer products.”
Mesothelioma is a cancer that can take decades to manifest in patients and affects the lining of the internal organs especially the lungs. Victims of this asbestos-related disease need extensive medical care which in some cases only prolongs the inevitable. Representation of a mesothelioma lawyer can make it possible for sufferers to get the funds they need for treatment.
The diligent work of mesothelioma attorneys has made the public and officials more aware of the dangers asbestos poses to human health.
