Hi, I am writing to express solidarity with injured workers in Australia, and to say I am glad that the person writing the post knows that it is key to hang on to your own life. Take care of yourself. No one else will do it for you, and you * are * valuable. You are not your mortgage payment. Your job is to take care of yourself. Eventually you may be able to do more for your family, but right now your job is to take care of yourself. I am so sorry that you had to leave your children. I hope they are well and that your health is improving. I live in the United States where the government has even less of a sense of responsibility for taking care of its citizens. We don't even have health care for people unless they can afford the payments for health insurance.

Seven years ago I was injured on the job and would have been out in the streets when I was no longer able to work if my family had not helped me, providing me with a place to live. Fortunately, one of my two children was already on his own. What happened was that one day I showed up to my workplace at a university and there were guys with jack hammers turning the old swimming pool outside my office into aerosole-sized particles. *They* were wearing gas masks. I started to smell concrete dust inside my office and to feel a tickling at the back of my throat. I called the risk management department to say that I thought there was a health risk. They came and said there was nothing wrong. I ended up getting very sick, really tired al the time, to the point where unloading one rack of dishes from the dishwasher was a huge effort. I had to rest for 45 minutes to unload the next rack. Once I started feeling better, after a couple of months, I realized that being around car exhaust made me feel like someone was sitting on my chest, like I couldn't breathe right. I was determined to get over this and stayed home so that I could refrain from exposing myself to things that would make me sick. But the medical doctors didn't know anything about this kind of illness. They said I had anxiety and offered me psychotropic drugs. I started getting symptoms like rashes and fevers, in addition to the shortness of breath, and when I told one doctor about that he literally said: " Lots of my patients have symptoms like that, but I don't see how that could have anything to do with what is wrong with you." !!! Before that I had thought that doctors used the scientific method, in other words, we observe what is wrong and then try to come up with a theory of what could be causing that. Not, "I don't know about any conditions that include all these symtoms, so therefore they can't be happening to you or to any of ny other patients."

Meanwhile, the university gave me worker's compensation, but then denied there was anything wrong with me after one month.
I found out the hard way that in the United States if a person is injured on the job they are guilty unless they can prove they are innocent. In other words, the employer will deny that there is anything wrong, so that they don't have to pay workman's comp. Then the injured worker has to take it to the industrial commission and prove that they are injured and that it is due to their work environment. This is really hard to do when you are probably sicker than you have ever been in your life and no lawyer will take your case, and you don't have any money. With the support of my family I eventually was able to get better. Also, through a miracle, I was eventually able to find a doctor who would testify in my behalf and a lawyer who would take my case. So the university paid a little bit. But then that same doctor turned on me and said I was all better, because I stopped going to him after the comment about how the other symptoms couldn't possibly have anything to do with what was wrong with me. He told the university I was all better now, even though he had not seen me for 10 months. How could he know I was better? That should be easy to prove wrong, I thought.

I eventually found a doctor who actually used the scientific method and was willing to make observations on what was actually physically wrong with me, not just say, " I don't know what what's wrong, so there isn't anything wrong." He had other patients with similar problems and started to keep a database on these kinds of illnesses. I had to take my case to the industrial commission again. But the new judge didn't think my new doctor's testimony was valid, because she didn't *believe* there was such a thing as the kind of illness I claimed to have. It didn't matter that my lung function had gone down, according to tests.

Because my family supported me and my daughter I was able to get through those very difficult four years. Through doing internet research on these kinds of illnesses and doing alternative treatments that I found out about and that my family helped me with, I was able to got better enough to be able to walk down the street without feeling sick later. My second doctor eventually said he thought what i had been sick with was a mold infection.

I eventually sued the company who sent in the workers with gas masks to do the jack hammering. No lawyer really thought I had a good case, but one agreed to take it. he settled with the company and got very little money, which all went to the lawyer and to the university, to pay them back for the little they had paid me in worker's compensation!

Now I am working again, even though I have to stay away from dusty environments and places where there are chemical smells. I already had to quit one job because they moved to a new building that I could tell was making me sick. And at my new job I had to refuse to work in the office where there was new carpet. Fortunately they want me to work there and gave me a cubicle in a different part of the building, otherwise I would have had to quit that, too. I know my health is worth doing anything to keep. The main reason I am writing is to encourage you and all injured workers. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. You are worth it. Not being able to keep up with your responsibilities was not your fault! We all would like to keep working and have our health back! As you pointed out, the small amount one gets in worker's compensation is *not* enough to make one want to put oneself through all these trials and tribulations -- that's what the companies here claim -- they say workers "fake" injury or illness to get the money!!

I was incredibly lucky to have family who supported me both emotionally and financially.

The Canadian Injured Workers Society has links to international injured worker organizations on their "Resources" page.
http://www.ciws.ca/resources_canadian_injured_workers_society.htm