Gas Leak Survivor Tells Judge of Pain, Nightmares

For Derek Abbott, the dull headaches are a constant reminder of the devastating 1994 oil field accident that killed three co-workers and left his body, he said, riddled with pain and health problems.

Abbott, 18 at the time, was the youngest member of the six-person crew killed or injured during a gas leak at a Seacliff oil production plant four years ago.

Today, as he continues to struggle with the emotional and physical effects of that accident, Abbott is seeking $4.2 million in compensation from Vintage Petroleum, the Oklahoma-based property owner found liable for the accident.

“I live with headaches now,” Abbott told a judge Wednesday during the first day of testimony in the damages phase of his lawsuit against Vintage.

“I remember getting dizzy” for the first few months after the accident, he recalled. “My head would start spinning. I never knew when it was going to come.”

Abbott’s case is the third of six that Ventura County Judge Barbara A. Lane will hear during the coming weeks. She is not expected to rule on this portion of the cases until all six have been presented, probably in late October or early November.

Last month, Lane ruled the deaths of Jason Hoskins, Ronald Johnson and Sean Harris and the injuries to Abbott and two other workers could have been prevented if Vintage had taken proper safety measures.

Lane is now hearing testimony to decide the amount of compensation the survivors or their families are due.

The workers were overcome by a toxic gas leak Aug. 10, 1994, while converting a defunct 70-year-old well into a disposal site at the production plant in the foothills of Rincon Mountain.

As they drilled into the well, a gas pocket more than 2,000 feet below burst and forced water to the surface. As the workers attempted to control the geyser, they were overcome by lethal gases carried up with the water.

Lane, who is hearing evidence in the five-month trial instead of a jury, said Vintage contributed to the accident by failing to assess geological risks at the site.

Moments after the gas leak, Hoskins, Johnson and Harris suffered cardiac arrest and died. Abbott and two other workers, Jerry Walker and Toby Thrower, were rushed to Ventura County Medical Center.

Abbott, a former Oak View resident who had worked for subcontractor Pride Petroleum for only six weeks, was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks for treatment in the hyperbaric chamber, a pressurized cylinder that administers pure oxygen.

In Abbott’s case, the chamber allowed doctors to displace the poisonous gases in his system.

On Wednesday, Abbott, now 22 and a resident of Elk Grove, recalled painful medical procedures he underwent after the accident as well as lingering health problems, such as blurred vision and sinus pain.

During his third or fourth treatment in the hyperbaric chamber, he said, he pleaded with doctors to shut off the machine because of severe head pain.

“It felt like somebody was hammering nails into my head,” Abbott testified.

Also, Thousand Oaks attorney C. Duffy Buchanan said his client sustained brain damage during the gas leak because he could not get enough oxygen.

Responding to questions posed by Buchanan, Abbott told Lane that he continued to suffer headaches and dizziness after the accident.

He also described nightmares that he said shook him from sleep for months. He said the visions were often the same--a replay of his friends dying, overcome by lethal fumes spewing from the well.

“For a while, it was every night,” he said of the nightmares, adding that he sometimes had pleasant dreams of his co-workers alive. “Some nights were good and some nights were bad.”

Abbott is seeking $1.4 million in damages for lost wages and medical expenses. He is no longer able to work in the oil industry or other jobs involving large machinery because of his impaired vision, his lawyer said.

The former Ventura High School student is also seeking at last $2.8 million in additional damages.

In other testimony Wednesday, Abbott’s mother, Marsha K. Abbott Farmer, told the judge her son has reservations about returning to the well site.

On cross-examination, Vintage attorney Bruce Finck asked Farmer whether her son suffered any head injuries before the accident. When she could not recall any, Finck reminded her of a motorcycle accident he said Abbott had in high school.

Finck also showed Farmer a medical report, taken six months before the accident, in which Abbott complained of a two-day headache and requested medication from his family doctor. Farmer said she could not recall that incident.

Testimony is scheduled to resume this morning.