My Coworker Nearly Died At Work, We Think It's Because Of A Task They Had Him Do. Can He Sue?

My coworker and I both work at a very popular seafood restaurant that recently went bankrupt. I'm a waitress and he's a host.

My general manager had him on a ladder scrubbing mold out of a ventilation system. No protection, no masks, no anything. Some of the mold is still there where he couldn't reach and the ladder weight limit was 200lbs. My coworker is over that weight limit and told my manager, to which he said he would "be fine".

Fastforward to not too long later, my coworker is hosting and feels uneasy and uncoordinated. He's barely able to speak and my manager, J, sends him to sit at a table and take a break. In the meantime my other manager, H, hosts in his stead. Its kind of busy but I noticed his eyes rolling up into the back of his head and he could barely breathe. I asked H if I should call paramedics to which he told me "I can't be a host and a medical professional at the same time". I found J, he came and examined my coworker and told me to call.

He was carried out in a gurney, had one useless lung and one 70% full of fluid. Doctors said he had pneumonia and asked if he'd been around mold recently. They said he was seconds or minutes away from death.

So, that brings me to where I am now. We want to figure out if he has a lawsuit on his hands. I feel that a worker shouldn't be directed to scrub mold without protection, and the reaction from H when a coworker was in a medical catastrophe has us wondering. The restaurant's insurance covered the medical costs, but he nearly died.

If a suit can happen, where do yall suggest we go to for a lawyer? We are in North Texas. Thank you