STRIVING AHEAD Against ALL ODDS

This is the story of a family in BC and their experiences with the Workers compensation Board.

In Canada we are covered by the Workers compensation system when we are injured on the job and until my husband was injured I did not know what our family was in store for until after the fact. I thought we were protected when you were injured on the job but our story will give you a glimpse of what you could be in store for if you are Injured at work.

I was married in 1990 to a very hard working gentleman from Saskatchewan. He had a farm background and loved to work. He was an excellent income provider and I saw our future as being full of adventure. He loved the outdoors as much as I did and we would enjoy Hiking, hunting and fishing in the Yukon, and around the province of BC. He was an Avid Skier, loved scuba diving and ever activity that the North can provide. We had our first child in Whitehorse Yukon and continued to travel around the province. He was a power line man, that could climb up a pole faster than anyone that I could see. In the Yukon we lived in a small cabin and after wanting more for our first child we moved to BC close to my family so that they could help me with him, so we moved in the house that my father had built in 1961. My husband was an excellent carpenter so he started to renovate the older house. Here we had our second child. My father was in the logging and construction industry and my husband had previous logging experience so he went to work climbing and topping poplar to make an income for his new family. WE had an old 1996 Ford from Proctor and Gamble that the owner gave us a deal on, my husband was an excellent mechanic so he could keep it on the road.

It was February 14th; he went to work as usual. We had gone to our valentine’s supper earlier that week, so that he could work on that day. I get a phone call from the logging contractors wife, that my husband was hurt. He was struck with a popular tree that had broken off. He crawls to the landing after being struck hoping to be seen laying on top of a log deck by his employer. Then I learn that he is taken 60 miles bouncing over a rough road by trying to hold his spine in traction by a support handle in pickup. I rush into the neighboring town which is our only treatment center 60 miles away to see him lying on the x-ray table with blood dripping from his ears. The hospital tells us it will be two days until they can get him into the next neighboring town that has a CT scan to see what damage is done. The doctor in emergency tells us all he sees is an OLD injury. So he is to spend two days rolling around in bed and given large amounts of pain medication and allowed to get up to try to relieve himself in which he couldn’t with a spinal injury. He is fed meals and treated like he had a small bump on the head.

Two days later he is taken to the CT scan. The attending doctor finds several smashed vertebrate and soft tissue injuries. The attending staff realizes the extent to the damage and starts rushing around like the accident just happened. He is cathered and this is the first time a C-spine support is put on and he is put on a spine board and immediately transported to Grande Prairie. I went to visit and was told that he was finally sent to a large hospital. Since we have an old vehicle which I would not rely on to get us that distance I get a vehicle from a rental place and travel to Grande Prairie to see him. He doesn’t even know where he is, or if I am there. He is Gastric distended from all the food they fed him in the previous hospital and is in major pain, they pump his stomach. He spends time in the Grande Prairie hospital while I try to get our affairs in order since I know that there is going to be a big change in our lives after this. A few weeks later, I was surprised to hear that they were shipping him home? It is March 1st and I was not ready for him. I rush to the local clinic and they lend me an old crank up hospital bed. There was no one to help me look after his needs. He could not bathe himself yet, and was still quite bed ridden and needed in and out of his clam shell that they let him out of the hospital with. The Workers compensation board sends a homecare worker about 3 months after he is home. What would happen if he had no family?

From the 8 week assessment the Workers compensation looked after the financial needs and I looked after his needs. After another assessment visit that is quite rude and condescending and tells us all he needs is 2 hours a day although He is still quite bed ridden at this point. The Workers compensation board takes a year prior to his current earnings when our children were sick and he stayed close to home and cuts his benefits in half. Our water pump goes on our vehicle, and I change it under direction of my husband in a lawn chair. In my determination, I teach myself the computer, and webpage design. If anyone is going to hear about what is happening it will be the world, since no one should have to go through this! I decide we have to go into debt for a new vehicle since it was him that kept our older one on the highway all this time. After we had purchased a new vehicle, so he didn’t have to repair it was quite apparent that I would have to go to work.

We had a company already registered with the government, it was housing renovations since my husband was an excellent carpenter. I took the name and started a traffic control company relying on my previous experience as a traffic control person. My family has construction background and I have been raised in construction all my life. I find my first job and commence work. I hire a homemaker to take care of my children and my uncompleted house. It is now 4 years later; I have worked for many companies and have built an excellent traffic control company from being safe. Since I did not want anyone to go through the same thing our family had went through. I have earned the title of ‘SAFE’.

My husband gets very frustrated he sees all he is suppose to do, and how the board is treating him. I am going to tell you it is not easy for a self sufficient man to sit back, to see his wife working with construction crews while he is Injured at home. He cannot mow the lawns, he can not cook for the children, and he goes through major depression seeing me working for us that used to be his prideful duty. At this point I hire everyone to do what he used to do. I have a very large family, and I owe them so much at this point, they help me with getting self sufficient so that I do not have to work so hard playing the rat race game with hydro and 400.00 monthly Gas bills. I could not complete or afford the renovations of the home that we started before my husband was injured, so I have to sell it. I am building a small cabin so that I can go back to wood heat, since I cannot afford the Natural gas that it takes to heat our current home and it is disconnected. I go further into debt buying 30 acres, so that my family can raise chickens, and eggs and pork since I was having a hard time affording groceries from long durations of no funds. My daughter and son have learned so much feeding animals, and working with them. My father is the greatest help to us and does most of the heavy work even though he is getting close to 75 years of age. My daughter can have a horse that she has been talking about since she was able to talk. I work towards our dreams, and move forward as a family. Currently we are racing against winter to get the cabin completed, and into it by fall, thanks to my family’s hard work.

All the worker compensation board can do is kick him further down by playing games with his file. They totally ignore the doctors reports. They deny his health care, they deny his spinal support, and they deny his pain medication. They cut off his benefits. We learn they have preformed Video Surveillance upon our family which leaves all of us in shock. My son, now 12 hears us talking about the Video and sees it; he now looks over his shoulder to see if he is being video taped. He also has a Spinal Injury since his dad has one. We have gone to the doctor and even had X-rays and found nothing. I feel violated that someone was watching us, following us.

The Investigator whom came into do the video surveillance did not do it totally covert. He told the local RCMP that he was to be here, causing us all sorts of difficulties. RCMP the District and some locals whom hear everything that the RCMP is doing, treats us with mistrust, and starts spreading lies around this small community we live in. Our accounts are cut off that I depend so much on to get us through the month, and we are looked at sideways in the community. After all this unbelievable events the doctor refers me to a psychologist, I can barely talk from the total disbelief from how one corporation, the community and people can treat a family who is trying to survive after Injury.

This week I read the Review file, and see all my hard work in Traffic control is put into his file to look like he is working. I am trying so hard to keep my family together give them a future after my husband was injured in a logging accident. I have lost my healthy partner, my lover, my future. We no longer go fishing, hunting, and enjoy the outdoors. I live with someone who relies on morphine for his daily freedom. I hope one day that this will all change. I am still in shock, and think What else can they do to us. I am scared that they again can misconstrue all my families hard work, that he is performing these events. They cannot take away my family, and I will fight until the end. All I can do is deal with the Psychological damage that they perform on a family, and forge ahead, and watch if someone is video taping trying to get a small glimpse of our family “striving ahead against all odds”.

Respectfully yours,
Earlene

Disclaimer:
What I write here is all based on my opinion, my observations and my experiences. Please take it as such and form your own opinion. WCB Digest is in no way responsible for my viewpoint or opinion.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 16th, 2007 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Your Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.