Breathing issues

I was a respiratory physician at the Southern General Hospital in Govan and saw people with pleural plaques usually diagnosed when a chest X-ray was done for another reason.

Many people are distressed by the diagnosis. They experience anxiety, causing breathlessness known as hyperventilation (overbreathing) in its most severe form.

This interferes with their lifestyle and two men I looked after had to give up work because of hyperventilation following the diagnosis.

Referral to a physiotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist produces partial resolution, but rarely a cure. The breathlessness usually persists after settlement of any legal action.

There is also bitterness caused by corporate and union indifference to ongoing exposure when the health implications of asbestos were known.

People exposed to asbestos usually reside near former work colleagues and hear about those developing more serious disease. Reassurance about the benign nature of plaques can produce the rejoinder that a friend or relative died from a mesothelioma several years after similar reassurance.

The effects of pleural plaques are not measurable, making it difficult for doctors to quantify and lawyers to compensate fairly.

We are complicated psychological beings and even benign conditions produce a range of symptoms and emotions. I remain unconvinced that pleural plaques never cause symptoms.

Robert Monie

Kelso

Borders