What Causes Shortness of Breath in Mesothelioma?

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mesothelioma claims - 0:00 Mesothelioma victims often complain of amazing shortness of breath. What causes this? Hi. -; 0:05 I'm Joe Williams. I'm a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City. And I can tell -; 0:09 you that almost every client who I've ever represented who was diagnosed with mesothelioma -; 0:14 complained of shortness of breath. And this is generally caused by fluid on the chest. -; 0:21 It's something that the doctors call a 'pleural effusion.' Now we have a diagram here to help -; 0:27 us discuss this a little better. And in this diagram, what we see here -- this area here -; 

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lawsuit mesothelioma - 0:32 -- this is the human lung. And this area outside of this, these are ribs. It's a cross-section. -; 0:39 So these are the ribs, the bony ribs. And this section here -- you see it, it's in off -; 0:46 white -- this is the area of the pleura. And the pleura are the saran wrap like wrapping -; 0:53 on the outside of the lung. And almost adhering to the lung itself is the visceral pleura -; 1:00 and almost adherent to the inside of the ribcage is the parietal pleura. And what happens as -; 1:05 we breathe -- breathing is an involuntary process. So our diaphragm is a muscle in our -; 

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mesothelioma lawsuit - 1:10 abdomen, which involuntarily on its own (we don't have to work to do it) it just causes -; 1:16 our lungs to push up and down, it causes us to breathe. And when that happens our lungs -; 1:21 move within our ribcage. And if it wasn't for the pleura our lungs would scrape against -; 1:29 the inside of the ribcage. But what happens is there's a little bit of fluid between the -; 1:35 parietal pleura (which again is on the inside of the ribs) and the visceral pleura (which -; 1:39 is adherent to the outside of the lungs) and that fluid between the two pleural surfaces -; 1:44 allows our lungs to move easily with no pain, no discomfort inside our bony ribcage. But -; 

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mesothelioma settlements - 1:51 when someone gets a cancerous tumor - as is represented in this photograph, this is the -; 1:56 mesothelioma tumor -- when someone develops this tumor it's kind of like when you bang -; 2:02 your knee. What happens to your knee? It swells. Our body has an inflammatory response. It's -; 2:08 the same way with mesothelioma. In this pleural space between the parietal (against the ribs) -; 2:14 and the visceral pleura (against the lungs), in that space between those two pleural surfaces -; 2:20 instead of just a little bit of fluid to allow the lungs to move now there's a lot of fluid. -; 2:24 And then a lot more fluid. And what happens when fluid develops in this space? Well, the -; 

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lawyers for mesothelioma - 2:29 bony ribs can't be moved, the fluid can't push them out of the way. So what does it -; 2:35 do? It pushes into the spongy lung tissue and contracts this spongy lung tissue and -; 2:41 causes shortness of breath. The victim (the patient) feels like they can't get a full -; 2:46 breath because their lungs can't expand and that's from a pleural effusion. Now what do -; 2:52 doctors do in order to deal with a pleural effusion? Well it's very simple. The doctors -; 2:57 do something called a "thoracentesis." That's a complicated medical word that just means -; 3:03 that they put a needle in -- usually in the side -- and they drain the fluid out. Some -; 

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mesothelioma veterans - 3:07 clients of mine over the years have had up to 2 large soda bottles of fluid drained from -; 3:14 this pleural space. And the great thing about this process is the patient feels so much -; 3:20 better afterwards because now they can breathe better because now that fluid is out of there. -; 3:24 And during this procedure, sometimes the doctors will do something called "a talc pleurodesis." -; 3:31 It's a complicated word but all it means is they take talc and during this surgical procedure -; 3:36 they insert the talc between the two layers of pleura, between the visceral pleura and -; 3:41 the parietal pleura. They insert some talc in there. Why do they do that? Because it -; 

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mesothelioma lawyer - 3:45 causes scarring, which in this circumstance is a good thing because it causes the two -; 3:50 pleural surfaces to scar together and no more fluid will be generated. So it relieves the -; 3:57 potential for getting more buildup of fluid in that area. So these are some of the things -; 4:02 that are done to deal with fluid buildup as it relates to mesothelioma in the chest. I'm -; 4:08 sure you have many more questions about mesothelioma and all the medical interventions that can -; 4:13 be done to help relieve some of the serious symptoms that victims of mesothelioma have. -; 4:18 I'm Joe Williams and in my office we deal with these cases every day. We represent victims -; 4:22 of mesothelioma each and every day. Look at the number below and I encourage you to give -; 4:28 us a call and we'll answer your questions about your mesothelioma diagnosis. Thank you. -;

source : Attorney Joe Williams - The Williams Law Firm, P.C.