It came as a complete shock to the entire family when Theresa Garcia discovered that her coughing fits were caused by a rare form of cancer normally found in miners and construction workers.
The 53-year-old from Chicago, Illinois, worked in offices and spent most of her free time at home, raising her six children.
It wasn’t until they saw news reports linking Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder to tumor formation that things began to make sense.
Mrs. Garcia was a lifelong user of talcum powder, applying it after showering from a young age because she liked the smell and wanted to prevent sweating. She also covered her children in it from head to toe, as photos show, to keep them dry.
The mother was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a form of cancer that grows in the lung lining and is caused by repeated exposure to asbestos, a now-banned, highly toxic mineral once found in building materials.
Theresa Garcia, 53, is pictured above at a family meal. She died in July 2020, just six months after being diagnosed with the fast-growing cancer mesothelioma
Mrs. Garcia is pictured above in family photos shown in court. Her daughter Stephanie said Mrs. Garcia was “family oriented” and a mother first
Her daughter Stephanie Salcedo first told DailyMail.com her mother’s story, saying that Ms Garcia was very focused on her family and always looking for ways to help others.
“Everything she did, she did for someone else,” her daughter said, “so whether that meant being active and playing volleyball, hosting barbecues, making and personalizing t-shirts for us, she did it — it was for the happiness of her family.”
“I remember her making personalized trick-or-treat bags for the grandchildren, nieces and nephews at Halloween, and always being willing to help with a school project.”
After suffering for months with a mysterious cough that “just didn’t sound right,” Ms. Garcia was diagnosed with cancer in January 2020 that was attacking the lining of her lungs.
This condition is known as pleural mesothelioma and was often diagnosed in miners and builders. There are about 3,000 cases each year.
Products containing asbestos – the cause of cancer – were banned in 1989. Since then, the number of cases in the US has dropped to fewer than 2,000 per year.
After learning of the link, Ms. Garcia’s family filed a lawsuit against J&J — and wonfor which he received $45 million.
But Ms Garcia did not live to see the verdict pronounced, as she died in July 2020, just seven months after being diagnosed with cancer.
She was engaged at the time and wanted to celebrate her dream wedding that same year.
The first warning sign that something was wrong was when she developed a bad cough that wouldn’t go away.
‘It was Christmas 2019, we were at her house and she kept coughing and coughing. She didn’t seem sick but the sound of her cough was just not right.
‘It was a painful, loud sound, it wasn’t normal, it really sounded like it was coming from her lungs – and not the average sound you hear when you clear your throat.
In the family photo above, a bottle of talcum powder can be seen in the background
‘I remember one of us asking her, ‘Mom, you need to get your cough checked.’
And she said something like, “I know I’ve had this cough forever. It won’t go away.”
“But she said that she thought it was just a cold or a cough that was hard to get rid of.”
The photos above show just how much Ms. Garcia used the powder. They show her children covered in it from head to toe.
The following month, Ms. Garcia had a coughing fit while driving home from work at an executive postal service that was so bad she had trouble breathing, prompting a trip to the ER.
Research has shown that the mineral talcum powder from which it is made, contaminated with asbestoswhich could become aerosolized when using the powder.
Asbestos fibers can be inhaled and carried to the lungs, where they become trapped and are not broken down. As a result, they can irritate the lining of the organ and eventually cause cancer.
In mid-January 2020, Ms. Garcia was diagnosed with advanced pleural mesothelioma, which was effectively a death sentence.
Penn Medicine says patients with this type of cancer typically survive only four to 18 months after diagnosis. Statistics show that only 12 percent of patients survive five years after the disease is discovered.
Later that year, she became one of 54,000 people who filed lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson, accusing the company of causing a range of cancers, including ovarian cancer, and other ailments.
After her diagnosis, Ms. Garcia initially sought surgery to remove the lining of her lungs and cut out the cancer.
Mrs. Garcia is pictured above in hospital during her seven-month battle with cancer
A date was set, but when she arrived on the day of the operation and had a scan, she was told that her condition was inoperable, so the operation was cancelled.
She then received chemotherapy and underwent four rounds of treatment.
But it took a toll on her body: she was in constant pain and could barely get out of bed, prompting doctors to recommend hospice care.
She passed away on July 27, 2020.
Describing her mother’s struggle, Ms Salcedo told DailyMail.com: ‘It was devastating to see my mother go through that and be in excruciating pain. She basically died in front of our eyes.
“But even then, it was important to her to make other people feel comfortable and happy. She was a mother first and she cared about how we felt, even though she was the one in pain and suffering.
“You could see in her face and hear in her voice how much pain she was in, but she kept saying, ‘I’m OK, I’m going to be OK,’ and instead she was worried about us.”
Pleural mesothelioma is a slow-growing cancer that takes about twenty years to develop after exposure to asbestos.
In the early stages, the disease may not cause any symptoms, but warning signs such as persistent cough, shortness of breath and chest pain do develop.
The disease is difficult to treat, because the cancer is often not diagnosed until it has spread to other parts of the body and has first attacked the lung wall, which is difficult to operate on.
Mrs. Garcia is pictured above in a family photo
And shown again in another family photo, taken during the Christmas season
Other family members are now also concerned that they could develop the same cancer after using Johnson & Johnson products.
Ms Salcedo said: ‘It’s something we always worry about, of course, and it was something my mother worried about when her trial first started.
“But at the moment we are all healthy, and hopefully it will stay that way.”
Early in her illness, the family assigned Texas attorneys Dean Omar Branham Shirley to handle Ms. Garcia’s case.
The pharmaceutical company fiercely opposed them in court, turning over every rock they could find to prove that their powder had not caused the disease.
Ms. Salcedo explained that they even contacted Ms. Garcia’s first husband and her family friends to find an alternative to asbestos exposure.
In court, they even went so far as to claim that the family bought a counterfeit version of their product from the local supermarket.
Ultimately, the jury ruled in the family’s favor, although damages have not yet been received and attorneys say they may still appeal the verdict.
Mrs Salcedo said: ‘I feel like we did this for her and I wish she could have been here to experience it.
“All the time I thought maybe she could rest peacefully now. She always asked us to continue her business if anything happened to her.”
Born in Chicago, Mrs. Garcia was the fifth of eight children and grew up in a one-bedroom apartment with her five sisters.
She married her first husband in the 1980s, with whom she had six children. Johnson & Johnson powder was a household staple. The two separated in the 2010s.
She then met her partner Carlos at the same post office where she worked, although the two had known each other since childhood.
At the same time, when her children left home, she also became the grandmother of a group of about 13 grandchildren.
Mrs. Garcia kept quiet about the engagement after Carlos proposed to her on Christmas Eve. She waited until the family came over and one of them noticed a ring on her finger.
Her first question to the children when they found out was, “Do you mind?”
J&J is set to pay one of the largest settlements in history over claims that talcum powder causes cancer and other diseases. The company offered a $6.5 billion deal to those who filed lawsuits against it.
Early reports indicate that more than 75 percent of claimants voted in favor of the deal, the required threshold.
