Carter Roy
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
He performs the autopsy on Lehman.
When he tests Lehman's bones, he finds that they're radioactive, extremely radioactive.
And Martlin doesn't stop there.
He develops tests to detect radium in living people.
He starts examining the sick dial painters.
He measures the radiation in their breath, bones, and organs.
This is different from the drinker's report.
This isn't an observation of glowing bodies.
This is scientific measurement, numbers that can show how much radiation is in these women's bodies.
So now there's a published Harvard report, a dead company scientist, and a county physician with hard data.
That much evidence inspires the first dial painter to sue USRC.
In 1925, Marguerite Carlo files a lawsuit against the company.
She's 23 years old.
Her sister, who also worked at the factory, has already died from radiation poisoning.
Marguerite is dying too, and she knows it.
She sues for $75,000, about a million dollars today.
USRC's response is to change the classification to a workman's compensation case, not a full lawsuit against the company.
Radium poisoning isn't even listed as a compensable disease.
The case will automatically fail.
Marguerite dies on December 26th, 1925.