Document mpdxjVZEoyMo8OmRwpxgd8QZB

1 to farm. He had cattle. He had chickens. He had Page 180 2 ducks. He wanted to be a farmer. 3 He was retired at the age of 67, but in 1980 4 he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. 5 It started off as a firm painful 6 incarcerated umbilical hernia. It looked almost like 7 a finger, top of a finger sticking through his belly 8 button. 9 As soon as he felt the lump, he went right 10 to his family physician. Dr. Foard up in the 11 Manchester area who referred him to a surgeon, Dr. 12 John Steers in October of 1980 who did an operation 13 and repaired what he thought was a normal procedure, 14 incarcerated umbilical hernia. 15 You will hear Dr. Steers testify, as soon as 16 he cut open Mr. Vandergucht and opened that part of 17 the abdominal cavity which is known as the omentum, 18 which is a fold in there, he saw nothing but cancer. 19 He thought that it was a GI tract tumor. 20 The pathologist looked at it and said possibly it was 21 a mesothelioma. They weren't sure. Therefore, Mr.