{"id":29996,"date":"2025-06-19T15:27:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29996"},"modified":"2025-06-19T15:28:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T15:28:23","slug":"in-appalachia-a-father-got-black-lung-then-his-son-did-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29996","title":{"rendered":"In Appalachia, a Father Got Black Lung. Then His Son Did, Too."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Denver Brock and his son Aundra used to spend early mornings hunting rabbits in the wooded highlands of Harlan County, Ky. But they don\u2019t get out there much these days. They both get too breathless trying to follow the baying hounds.<\/p>\n

Instead, they tend a large garden alongside Denver Brock\u2019s home. Even that can prove difficult, requiring them to work slowly and take frequent breaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get so dizzy,\u201d Denver Brock said, \u201cyou can\u2019t hardly stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brocks followed a long family tradition when they became Appalachian coal miners. For it, they both now have coal workers\u2019 pneumoconiosis, a debilitating disease characterized by masses and scarred tissue in the chest, and better known by its colloquial name: black lung.<\/p>\n

Mr. Brock, 73, wasn\u2019t all that surprised when he was diagnosed in his mid-60s. In coal mining communities, black lung has long been considered an \u201cold man\u2019s disease,\u201d one to be almost expected after enough years underground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But his son was diagnosed much younger, at just 41. Like his father, he has progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease. And today, at 48, he\u2019s even sicker.<\/p>\n

When he followed his father into mining, he thought he was entering a safer industry than the one prior generations had worked in. By the 1990s, safety standards and miner protections had nearly consigned the disease to history.<\/p>\n

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Denver Brock and his son Aundra used to spend early mornings hunting rabbits in the wooded highlands of Harlan County, Ky. But they don\u2019t get out there much these days. They both get too breathless trying to follow the baying hounds.Instead, they tend a large garden alongside Denver Brock\u2019s home. Even that can prove difficult, requiring them to work slowly and take frequent breaks.\u201cYou get so dizzy,\u201d Denver Brock said, \u201cyou can\u2019t hardly stand up.\u201dThe Brocks followed a long family tradition when they became Appalachian coal miners. For it, they both now have coal workers\u2019 pneumoconiosis, a debilitating disease characterized by masses and scarred tissue in the chest, and better known by its colloquial name: black lung.Mr. Brock, 73, wasn\u2019t all that surprised when he was diagnosed in his mid-60s. In coal mining communities, black lung has long been considered an \u201cold man\u2019s disease,\u201d one to be almost expected after enough years underground.But his son was diagnosed much younger, at just 41. Like his father, he has progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease. And today, at 48, he\u2019s even sicker.When he followed his father into mining, he thought he was entering a safer industry than the one prior generations had worked in. By the 1990s, safety standards and miner protections had nearly consigned the disease to history.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29998,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29999,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29996\/revisions\/29999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}