() Some East Palestine residents who joined a $600 million class-action settlement against Norfolk Southern are seeking to withdraw from the agreement, claiming attorneys deceived them about their health prospects and potential compensation.

Austin Druckenbrod, 27, who worked a mile from the derailment site when officials conducted a burn of toxic chemicals in February 2023, said he was promised millions in compensation but now wants to file an individual lawsuit.

The Cleveland Clinic diagnosed Druckenbrod with reactive airway disease linked to chemical exposure from the train derailment. Brain scans show extreme swelling compared to normal scans, and he has experienced breathing dysfunction, coughing up blood and other severe symptoms.

“It’s ruined my life in every way that I could possibly imagine,” Druckenbrod told .

His current attorney, Mindy Bish, alleges class-action lawyers concealed his case to prevent other residents from learning that doctors were capable of making exposure-related diagnoses.

“The class-action attorneys hid him, and they hid him so that no one else in East Palestine would know that there were doctors capable of making a diagnosis related to exposure,” Bish said.

Attorneys allegedly misled residents about health risks and compensation

Attorney Melinda Young, who also represents Druckenbrod, said class-action attorneys brought in a doctor who told residents to expect no long-term health consequences from the exposure to encourage participation in the settlement.

“The levels that people were exposed to were so small that we don’t expect any cancers or health effects from those,” the doctor said in a video presentation to residents.

Young said when the court asked if attorneys had made such assurances, “the class-action attorneys misrepresented that fact to the judge and told the judge they never told anyone that which was just not true.”

Druckenbrod’s former attorney, Mikal Watts, denied the characterizations, saying, “I did not communicate with him to stay quiet. If he believed that he had a personal injury claim worth pursuing, we certainly advocated for those clients to simply opt out and continue to pursue the personal injury litigation.”

The controversy comes as Norfolk Southern recently declared cleanup from the disaster complete, stating on its website that the site was restored. However, independent testing suggests toxins remain in the area.

“The cancers have started. People are starting to get diagnoses that say, go home and get your affairs in order, 24-year-olds who are now 27 like Austin,” Bish said. “These attorneys could have found the truth and could have taken care of East Palestine, and they chose money over their clients.”

The attorneys plan to file a motion in federal court seeking to release Druckenbrod and other residents from the settlement so they can pursue individual lawsuits.