Parents of mesothelioma victim pushed hard for Supreme Court precedent
Tennessean Amanda Nicole Satterfield died of mesothelioma on January 1, 2005 at the age of 25. Her father Doug worked for Alcoa from 1973 until 2006. He did not know that he was working with the toxic substance asbestos. His wife Donna gave birth to Amanda in 1979; she was three months premature. When Doug showed up to visit his baby in the hospital, he had asbestos dust on his hair and clothing, exposing her fragile body to the toxin that would cause her mesothelioma and eventual death a quarter of a century later.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had instituted regulations in 1972 that prohibited employees who were exposed to asbestos from bringing their contaminated clothing home to be laundered. Alcoa ignored this regulation. Doug did not know that he was working with asbestos at that time, and the company never advised him about it.
When Amanda was first diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2002 following the discovery of a hard spot in her abdomen at a routine checkup with her gynecologist, Doug still did not know he had been working with asbestos. The Satterfields were angry that Alcoa had created an image of itself as being very concerned with safety, when in reality it was exposing its workers and their families to a number of serious health risks. Amanda was brought to Washington, D.C. to see a mesothelioma specialist for surgery and chemotherapy, including the removal of a 20-pound tumor she didn’t know she had. When she returned home, she attended weekly chemotherapy sessions. She thought she would beat the cancer right up until she died two and a half years later.
Amanda filed the lawsuit against Alcoa in Blount County Circuit Court before she died. Knowing that her father had worked for the company for 33 years without knowing a thing about asbestos or mesothelioma, her goal was to raise awareness of these workplace hazards. When she died, her parents took over the lawsuit, knowing how important it was to her to get the word out and make the company take responsibility for its actions.
Even though Alcoa knew about the dangers of asbestos back in the 1970s, the judge dismissed the Satterfields’ case. But Doug was confident that he would find justice in the Tennessee Court of Appeals. Three Appellate Court Justices felt that the case had merit. Alcoa appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and the court ruled in favor of the Satterfields on Amanda’s birthday.
The supreme court’s decision set a precedent in Tennessee requiring employers to protect their employees from hazardous materials. The Satterfields hope that this precedent will help more people avoid the same sort of tragedy that hit their family.
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