Do Personal Injury Lawsuits About Exposure To Carcinogens Cover Alternative Cancer Treatments?

Personal injury lawsuits are not just for people injured in car accidents or people who slipped and fell on the wet floors of supermarkets.  Any time one party’s negligence, which includes failure to maintain safe conditions in a place for which that party is responsible, causes another person’s preventable illness or injury, the injured person has the right to file a personal injury lawsuit.  Knowingly or recklessly exposing workers or consumers to carcinogens is well established in the law as a type of negligence.  For example, people who were diagnosed with cancer after being exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base have the right to seek compensation for medical expenses and disability, and the newly enacted Camp Lejeune Justice Act has just made it easier.  Likewise, people who developed malignant mesothelioma due to occupational exposure to asbestos have the right to seek damages.  Personal injury lawsuits are not known for being quick, and by the time your case settles or goes to trial, you will probably already have begun cancer treatment.  A Columbia personal injury lawyer can help you seek compensation for the cost of cancer treatment and other financial losses related to preventable exposure to carcinogens.

What Makes a Cancer Treatment Alternative?

At some point before or after your cancer diagnosis, you may have researched alternative and complementary treatments for cancer, or a friend or chiropractor may have recommended them to you.  The term “alternative and complementary therapies” refers to any dietary supplements or health-seeking behaviors other than the ones currently recommended by physicians (doctors who hold an M.D. degree).  These include nutritional supplements (including but not limited to vitamins, minerals, fish oil, plankton, and herbs), massage, acupuncture, cupping (hijama), and meditation.  Some of these therapies have been practiced in one or another culture for centuries, while others are based on relatively new theories of health and nature.  When pursued in combination with physician-recommended treatments, they are called complementary therapies, and when done instead of physician-recommended treatments, they are called alternative therapies.

How Complementary and Alternative Therapies Affect Your Personal Injury Case

The economic damages in a personal injury case, related to cancer or any other illness or injury, must be based on the financial losses that the plaintiff incurred as a direct result of the defendant’s negligence.  It is easy to prove that the defendant should cover the cost of your cancer surgery and chemotherapy, plus the associated hospitalizations and convalescence.  If you pursued alternative therapies instead of or before surgery and chemotherapy, the defendants could argue that, by choosing unproven treatments, you let your cancer get worse before treating it; they could use this argument to reduce the amount of damages they pay you.  With the help of medical expert witnesses, your lawyer can ensure that you get a fair settlement in your personal injury case.

Let Us Help You Today

The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you if you have been diagnosed with cancer after occupational exposure to carcinogens.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Source:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6777858/