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| Kris Penny in April (left), and in October. Courtesy of Maryam Jameel/ Center for Public Integrity; Courtesy of Kris Penny |
"39-year-old Kris Penny concluded, after consulting with a lawyer, that he'd inhaled microscopic asbestos fibers about a decade earlier while installing fiber-optic cable underground. He sued telecommunications giant AT&T."
Updated December 17, 2015
by Jim Morris and Maryam Jameel, npr.org,
17 December 2015
Until the morning of Sept. 25, 2014, life was treating Kris Penny well. His flooring company had just secured its first big contract.
But that morning, Penny, of Clermont, Fla., was feeling lethargic. He pulled into a McDonald's for a cup of orange juice. Seconds after he drank it, he doubled over in pain. "It felt like someone stabbed me in the stomach with a machete," he said. A co-worker drove him to the emergency room.
When he awoke in the hospital, his wife, Lori McNamara, was beside him, crying. "I go, 'What's the matter? I'm still here,' " Penny said. The surgeon who'd opened up his abdomen had found it full of cancer — type to be determined. The doctor "pretty much told me to get my affairs in order, right there on the spot."
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Until the morning of Sept. 25, 2014, life was treating Kris Penny well. His flooring company had just secured its first big contract.
But that morning, Penny, of Clermont, Fla., was feeling lethargic. He pulled into a McDonald's for a cup of orange juice. Seconds after he drank it, he doubled over in pain. "It felt like someone stabbed me in the stomach with a machete," he said. A co-worker drove him to the emergency room.
When he awoke in the hospital, his wife, Lori McNamara, was beside him, crying. "I go, 'What's the matter? I'm still here,' " Penny said. The surgeon who'd opened up his abdomen had found it full of cancer — type to be determined. The doctor "pretty much told me to get my affairs in order, right there on the spot."