Kathy Trokey told a St. Louis courtroom what it felt like to watch her husband Bill suffer with mesothelioma in a trial to decide if his work on Ford autos replacing brake drums with asbestos in the 1960s caused him to develop the deadly cancer of the lungs 53 years later.
“He’s dwindling away,” Kathy Trokey said fighting back tears. “He’s not the man he was. It’s hard to imagine life without him.”
The trial in the 22nd Judicial District Court, William Trokey v. Chesterton Co., is being heard by Judge Christopher McGraugh and is streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
Attorneys for William Trokey, aged 76, contend that Ford officials knew the asbestos-laden brake drums the plaintiff was installing contained asbestos and were hazardous, but ignored the danger. Attorneys for Ford will contend that Trokey’s illness was contracted by some other means, that he wasn’t an employee of Ford nor even a professional mechanic, but a printer, and thus the car company is not liable.
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos and is almost always fatal. The disease can take decades to develop. Trokey was diagnosed with the disease in 2020.
William Trokey appeared as a witness called by Blouin last week and told the court that during the 1960s he had worked in auto repair stations doing brake installations, tune-ups and clutch work. He said he hoped to survive through the end of the year.
His wife Kathy Trokey on Tuesday told Blouin the ordeal started when her husband began to experience a pain in his back.
“Up by the shoulder blades,” she said. “He began to lose weight. At first I didn’t think a whole lot of it.”
The pain persisted she said and would come and go. Visits to doctors to try and find out what was causing the pain initially proved fruitless.
“A follow-up was done and a mass was discovered on his chest wall,” Trokey said, adding that worsening symptoms appeared. “He was more fatigued, his balance was bad. He lost weight and his bowels would lock up. They put a tube down him to drain.”
Surgery followed.
“He had a biopsy done and I tried to prepare him (for bad news),” Trokey said. “I knew it didn’t look good.”
“What had been your plans for the future?” Blouin asked.
“Bright,” Trokey answered. “He would have gone on field trips with friends and car trips. Then everything is taken away.”
Trokey was asked what her reaction was when she heard Bill had malignant mesothelioma.
“I didn’t know (about the disease), I knew it was bad,” she said. “The pain worsened, you go through phases, like yesterday might be a good day. But then sometimes it was so bad I could see him grimace.”
Trokey said doctors were honest about the seriousness of the situation. Nevertheless she said her husband faced it with courage.
“We never understood (early-on) there was no way out,” she said. “They (doctors) would try to give him the best possible quality of life and more time.”
Trokey told Blouin doctors never questioned her or her husband about his work as a printer or a car mechanic in an attempt to make a possible link with asbestos exposure.
Doctors put him on immunotherapy treatments.
“He had a hard time swallowing (food),” Trokey said. “Everything to him tasted salty. He lost weight. He doesn’t eat a lot now and he always had a good appetite. In the beginning he threw up a lot.”
Treatments for the pain included applications of morphine.
“It constipates you,” Trokey said. “We (family) try to make it as normal for him as possible. He doesn’t want to go. He wants to be here.”
Blouin asked Trokey how she was coping with the ordeal.
“I live day by day,” she said. “It’s hard to talk about it. It’s hard when you know you can’t win.”
Defense attorneys declined to question Trokey, only to ask her when she and her husband had filed the lawsuit.
In the afternoon plaintiff attorneys played a previously recorded deposition taped video in which Dr. Tim Oury, a pathology specialist, explained the nature of mesothelioma.
"Asbestos is a likely cause of mesothelioma," he said. "If a fiber (asbestos) is inhaled the body has a defense system called macrophages. They try to eat the fiber, and if that fails, put a coating on the fiber. That's what we see in the microscope."
Judge Christopher McGraugh said he was hopeful the case could go to the jury for a decision by the end of the week.