Phil Dressel spends his days in pain.
The lesions on his hands sting constantly. A wound on his forehead aches where surgeons were forced to remove infected bone after cancer ate through skin, muscle and part of his skull.
The leg doctors amputated at the hip to save his life still torments him daily.
He says the missing limb feels as though it is still there.
‘My foot was hurting so bad – literally, on fire,’ said the former Florida landscaper. Even now, he says, it still burns.
Now the 69-year-old is fighting what may be his final battle – not only against stage IV lymphoma, but against the company behind the weedkiller he says poisoned him.
Next week, Dressel’s case against Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, will be heard in a Florida courtroom, where his lawyers will ask a judge to fast-track his claim and set a trial date within a year because his health is deteriorating.
Bayer, which owns Monsanto, has consistently disputed allegations that Roundup causes cancer and says extensive studies and regulatory reviews support the product’s safety when used as directed.
In 2023, Phil Dressel noticed severe itching on his hands. That itching soon became open sores that spread to his back, feet, and, eventually, his face
The company has also fought legal claims that state law required stronger cancer warnings on the product.
The hearing is not the trial itself.
But for Dressel, it could decide whether he gets the chance to face a jury at all.
And for Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018 and has spent years trying to contain the legal fallout from Roundup cancer claims, the stakes reach far beyond one gravely ill man.
A substantial verdict for Dressel could encourage other claimants to reject standardized settlement offers and hold out for larger payouts of their own – piling fresh pressure on the company in one of America’s biggest product-liability battles.
Dressel worked as a landscaper in Fort Lauderdale for more than 20 years, regularly using Roundup because of its reputation for wiping out weeds quickly and effectively.
He says he never imagined the product could harm him.
‘When you say something is safe, it’s safe. So I didn’t think anything of it. It said safe, so okay, cool,’ he told the Daily Mail.
But in 2023 he noticed intense itching on his hands.
Soon, the irritation became open sores that spread to his back, feet and eventually his face.
A lesion on Phil’s forehead ate through his skin, then his muscle, then his bone, until a surgeon finally removed the tumor and discovered that his skull had been exposed for months
By May 2024, lesions on Phil’s left leg had turned septic, leaving surgeons with no choice but to amputate at the hip to save his life
Trips to dermatologists brought creams, dressings and temporary relief – but no answers.
Eventually, doctors raised the possibility of Mycosis Fungoides, a rare form of lymphoma that often first appears as red, scaly patches and can be mistaken for eczema or psoriasis.
Tests later confirmed the diagnosis. By then, Dressel says, the cancer had already entered his bloodstream.
An oncologist began chemotherapy, which he says pushed the disease out of his blood, but not out of his body.
The cancer remained in his skin. Then came a series of brutal complications.
Lesions on his left leg turned septic, forcing surgeons to amputate at the hip to save his life.
A lesion on his forehead ate through skin, then muscle, then bone, leaving part of his skull exposed before surgeons removed the damaged tissue.
‘They got to the point where my skull was exposed. I didn’t know that. I thought it was a crater,’ he said.
Between the major operations, there have been endless smaller procedures, including wound cleanings, skin grafts and treatments for lesions that still erupt on his chin and inside his ear, where one has damaged his hearing and causes constant pain
He says he has survived sepsis at least three times and now relies on daily IV infusions while largely confined to his apartment.
He cannot work. He cannot drive.
Most days, according to the source material, it is just him, the hum of the IV machine and the television. His two children, aged 17 and 18, visit when they can.
Dressel’s lawyers say he was offered about $48,000 through a broader Roundup settlement process, but rejected it.
His attorney David Selby told the Daily Mail the figure would barely touch the medical debts Dressel has built up through years of treatment.
‘A settlement offer of this nature doesn’t even make the question hard,’ Selby said. ‘It’s just not even realistic of what he’s been through.’
That matters because Bayer is attempting to draw a line under years of Roundup litigation through a proposed nationwide settlement framework.
According to a legal update tracking the litigation, Bayer says it has already resolved more than 100,000 claims and paid roughly $11 billion, though tens of thousands of cases remain active.
A proposed $7.25 billion deal would allow eligible claimants to accept compensation or opt out and pursue their own lawsuits.
If Dressel wins at trial, a jury could award him millions, far more than the $48,000 class-action settlement he turned down. That modest sum would have gone straight to his medical providers, leaving him with nothing
Roundup, whose main ingredient is glyphosate, has repeatedly been linked to kidney tumors and lymphomas, a family of blood cancers
Dressel appears to have chosen the second route.
Instead of accepting a fixed payout, he wants his own day in court, that creates risk for Bayer.
Large-scale settlements depend on enough claimants deciding certainty is worth more than the gamble of trial.
But if a jury awards millions to a plaintiff with catastrophic injuries, others may decide their own claims are worth far more than previously offered.
That could drive up the cost of future negotiations, prolong litigation and create fresh headaches for investors.
For Dressel, however, the battle is more immediate than any corporate strategy.
His lawyers say he wants accountability while he is still alive to see it.
