Matt Bass - The Aerotoxic Battle
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For more information visit www.mattbass.co.uk
Matthew kept himself fit, went to the gym on a regular basis and generally had a healthy life style. So when he started to feel unwell towards the end of 2013 it was a concern for all of us. Despite many tests and visits to his doctor and hospitals, including after one flight because he felt so ill, MRI scans and examinations nobody was able to figure out what was happening, why he was losing weight, why he had digestive issues and felt tired a lot of the time. They thought he might have had crone’s disease.
On Thursday Jan 30th 2014 Matt returned from a trip to Accra and went for another MRI scan, he spent the evening with his friends, a few red wines some pizza music and a bit of dancing.Then while everyone went downstairs to tidy up the dishes and do the washing up Matt went to have a rest on the sofa, he went to sleep and never woke up. His freinds dog started barking and one of his friends came upstairs to see why and found Matt had stopped breathing. They went straight into CPR procedure as all trained crew do, two other friends helped and an ambulance was called. It was there in quick time apparently and the para-medics took over and continued to try and revive Matt all the way to the hospital and into but he never came back.
Fiona and I were in Dubai at the time and Matt's close friend was in the worst position anyone could be in, trying to keep us up to date on Matt over the phone and then having to tell us he had died.
We flew back from Dubai that day and were met at the airport by two of Matt'sclosest friends who supported us over the weekend along with a bunch of Matts colleauges.
On the Saturday one of his friends had a call from a solicitor wanting to talk to us about Matt's passing but at that time we were still trying to come to terms with what happened to Matt. It turned out the solicitor was part of a support group that included ex-BA crew who were trying to raise awareness of crew deaths caused by long term, and sometimes short term, exposure to contaminated cabin air, they said they thought they knew why Matt might have passed away as he did.
Matt’s postmortem on the Monday showed no apparent reason for his passing, it ruled out crones disease, and the coroner could not tell us why he died. I decided to call back the solicitor to see why he had called and found out about the effect breathing cabin air can have on some people and the support group that was in place. Fiona and I then decided to have a second specialist postmortem carried out on Matthew by a leading forensic pathologist from Holland who specialised in the human nervous system and it’s poisoning. He found out Matthew had chronic exposure to organophosphate , the results were then examined in the US by one of, if not the, worlds leading authority on organophosphate poisoning and the results were confirmed. Poisoning of this type can lead to the body’s nervous system shutting down, especially the nervous systems controlling the lungs, heart and the brain. It is clear that 15 years of flying and breathing contaminated air could have poisoned Matthew and led to his death, we now have to prove this in the courts so we are at the start of a legal battle to get justice for Matthew and to stop it happening to others.
The most difficult part of all of this to come to terms with is that the airlines, industry and the government have known this has been happening for decades but are doing nothing to prevent it.
All funds raised will go towards the far reaching costs involved in Matt's legal battle which we are pleased to say is also currently being supported by Unite. And equally importantly, to help other crew member families pay for the specialist postmortem/testing required to reveal and confirm the real cause of death of their loved one. We are no stranger to the denials these families will face, and having walked the path ourselves, with the support of the GCAQE, the expertise required is now available.
I would like to thank everyone for their continued support for Matthew, us - his family, and the pursuit of truth about Aerotoxic Syndrome.
Matthew kept himself fit, went to the gym on a regular basis and generally had a healthy life style. So when he started to feel unwell towards the end of 2013 it was a concern for all of us. Despite many tests and visits to his doctor and hospitals, including after one flight because he felt so ill, MRI scans and examinations nobody was able to figure out what was happening, why he was losing weight, why he had digestive issues and felt tired a lot of the time. They thought he might have had crone’s disease.
On Thursday Jan 30th 2014 Matt returned from a trip to Accra and went for another MRI scan, he spent the evening with his friends, a few red wines some pizza music and a bit of dancing.Then while everyone went downstairs to tidy up the dishes and do the washing up Matt went to have a rest on the sofa, he went to sleep and never woke up. His freinds dog started barking and one of his friends came upstairs to see why and found Matt had stopped breathing. They went straight into CPR procedure as all trained crew do, two other friends helped and an ambulance was called. It was there in quick time apparently and the para-medics took over and continued to try and revive Matt all the way to the hospital and into but he never came back.
Fiona and I were in Dubai at the time and Matt's close friend was in the worst position anyone could be in, trying to keep us up to date on Matt over the phone and then having to tell us he had died.
We flew back from Dubai that day and were met at the airport by two of Matt'sclosest friends who supported us over the weekend along with a bunch of Matts colleauges.
On the Saturday one of his friends had a call from a solicitor wanting to talk to us about Matt's passing but at that time we were still trying to come to terms with what happened to Matt. It turned out the solicitor was part of a support group that included ex-BA crew who were trying to raise awareness of crew deaths caused by long term, and sometimes short term, exposure to contaminated cabin air, they said they thought they knew why Matt might have passed away as he did.
Matt’s postmortem on the Monday showed no apparent reason for his passing, it ruled out crones disease, and the coroner could not tell us why he died. I decided to call back the solicitor to see why he had called and found out about the effect breathing cabin air can have on some people and the support group that was in place. Fiona and I then decided to have a second specialist postmortem carried out on Matthew by a leading forensic pathologist from Holland who specialised in the human nervous system and it’s poisoning. He found out Matthew had chronic exposure to organophosphate , the results were then examined in the US by one of, if not the, worlds leading authority on organophosphate poisoning and the results were confirmed. Poisoning of this type can lead to the body’s nervous system shutting down, especially the nervous systems controlling the lungs, heart and the brain. It is clear that 15 years of flying and breathing contaminated air could have poisoned Matthew and led to his death, we now have to prove this in the courts so we are at the start of a legal battle to get justice for Matthew and to stop it happening to others.
The most difficult part of all of this to come to terms with is that the airlines, industry and the government have known this has been happening for decades but are doing nothing to prevent it.
All funds raised will go towards the far reaching costs involved in Matt's legal battle which we are pleased to say is also currently being supported by Unite. And equally importantly, to help other crew member families pay for the specialist postmortem/testing required to reveal and confirm the real cause of death of their loved one. We are no stranger to the denials these families will face, and having walked the path ourselves, with the support of the GCAQE, the expertise required is now available.
I would like to thank everyone for their continued support for Matthew, us - his family, and the pursuit of truth about Aerotoxic Syndrome.
Organizer
Charlie Bass
Organizer