It takes around-the clock care. By spring, Margaret Vatland had died of complications associated with asbestosis, a progressively degenerative disease caused by the entrapment of tiny, indestructible asbestos fibers in the lungs. Her husband died of asbestos-related illness more than two decades earlier. During the next 15 to 20 years, the latency period for asbestosis, scar tissue slowly builds around the fibers that cannot be expelled, impairing the lungs' capacity to absorb life-giving oxygen. Coughing doesn' t help.
Medication can only alleviate discomfort.
There is no cure. Stuart Cannon knows all this. He, too, has asbestosis, although you wouldn' t know it by looking at him. At 60, he seems to be the epitome of health. He smiles easily and laughs heartily.