How Much is a LIFE Worth ?

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Association) a division of our government set up to oversee the workplace, to setup guidelines and make sure business's adhere to safety procedures so that employee's remain safe on the job.

Well it was March 14^th, 2000, I was still involved with corporate America. I had a job as a maintenance supervisor with an Aluminum Extrusion company here in Georgia.

For those of you who don't know what an Aluminum Extrusion is I will explain:

Remember as a child the play doe shape machine, which you put in your piece of play doe and pushed the handle and whatever shape you had in front was what was came out, same principle for Aluminum Extrusion.

You have a billet cutter, that takes a log of raw aluminum 10" in diameter, cuts it into a 4' length, loads the billet into the extrusion press heating it to 900 degrees. Once heated, the press ram starts to push the billet through a die at the front of the press which contains the shape you wish for your customer. A puller comes and grabs the front of the shape and stretches it down an extension table about 150 yards and a cut off saw cuts it. The puller then drops this large extrusion on a cooling belt to be carried over to the saw crews, which will then cut the very large extrusion down into the small pieces that the customer has ordered. The puller then rushes back to the press at 40 mph to get the next extrusion. The whole process when operating properly is very unique to watch and the place and set up is as large as a football stadium.

Well again it was March 14^th, 2000, and it just happened to be my wife's 40^th birthday. It started out as a normal day, I was driving to work at 05:15am, and being a typical man I put things off to the last minute, I had not gotten my wife's birthday gift. But I had all intentions of stopping at the mall after work that day, I knew what I was getting her, had it in my mind, had it picked out, all I had to do was stop and go to the jewelry store and buy the Ruby/Diamond bracelet I knew had caught her eye.

I arrived at work at 5:45 and start in the cafeteria having my coffee as I always did, and went and punched in at 5:55 as normal. This was a typical day, or so I thought. At 7:15 there was a problem on Press 2 with the puller, it kept dropping the extrusion behind the cooling table instead of on the cooling table and the technician could not figure it out, as supervisor I get the call to get out there and get this press running, as every minute these things are down the company looses $25,000.00 per minute....

So off I go through the plant to Press 2. Now even though OSHA guidelines state that if you are working on a piece of machinery it should be LOCKED OUT so that it can not be turned on accidentally, this company had a mandate !!! Because a Aluminum Press takes about 20 minutes to completely lock out the behemoth if an mechanical problem will take 15 minutes or less to fix YOU DO NOT TAKE THE TIME TO LOCK OUT ~ because it costs us TOO much money to have these machines sitting idle, FIX the problem and get production going ASAP !!!

When I get there I see the problem immediately and know it will take me about 3 minutes, one of the eyes that relays to the computer is out of alignment so it is dropping the extrusion too soon... I go to the press operator, he is sweating bullets, afraid that he is going to be written up for bad production totals because he is already having a bad shift... I tell him that I know what the problem is, I will have him up and running in 5 minutes or less, just watch for me to climb out from the puller and wave and then he can start up.....

Well I go up and go behind the puller, and I adjust the eye back to where it belongs, and I start to climb out. I have my left leg out and my right foot is up on the puller track. The next thing I know is that I am flying though the air and landing in the middle of the cooling belts and feeling a searing pain in my right leg and foot. It seem that this half inbreed idiot, too eager to get his production totals up could not wait for my wave, and started the press up. Remember I told you that the pullers rush back to the press at 40 mph to get the next extrusion, well that is what happened when this idiot turned the press back on. The puller rushed back for the next extrusion and I was in its path, well I wasn't my right foot was !!!

The next thing I knew I was on a stretcher heading towards the company's nurse's office and off the Hospital, I guess so much for going to the mall that day for my wife's birthday gift. Happy birthday Jill, as she was getting the phone call from human resources to head down to the hospital.

Now at the hospital I find out I have a 10" long, 2' wide gash in my leg that goes all the way down to the bone, and I also have what is called a tri-polar break, I no longer have the points on either side of my ankle and the skinny part behind your ankle is snapped. Basically my ankle has been sheared from my leg.... My foot is just dangling there by the tendons and meat.....

Now I am told I will need surgery to repair this and will need some surgical stainless and bolts to hold me together, BUT I will not be able to have the surgery until the gash heals up, because there is a chance of infection, and if infection would get into the surgery I could loose the whole leg. I am also told that they can't cast it, because they need to keep a continuous check on the gash and keep putting on antibiotics and fresh dressings. So I will be on 100% bed rest for the next 10 - 20 weeks, I can not get it wet, I can not move around, I can not get up to walk or put weight on it, and I will be heavily medicated on pain medications so I will be out of it most of the time .... I will need sponge baths, meals in bed, and bed pans emptied.... After surgery I will need a walker for 6 - 8 weeks and then will need 12 - 20 weeks of rehab therapy..... OH JOY WHAT GREAT NEWS !!!!! REALLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILL !!!!!!!

Guy's do you want to really test your relationship ??? Tell your wife of 3 years on her 40^th birthday, that for the next 10 - 20 weeks she will have to sponge bathe you, feed you in bed, empty your bed pan, medicate you to the point that most times you will not be coherent, and massage you and love you and that you will not be able to support the family, and oh by the way I did not get you a birthday gift or card either !!! See if that doesn't test your relationship !!!! Believe it or not Jill and I are still together today as I write this article and probably stronger for it....

Now one thing that seriously made me angry, and when I get angry WATCH OUT, even heavily medicated I am a terror !!! The whole time I was back in emergency being repaired and told what was gong to be my outlook and out come, Jill was not with me, I kept asking about her and was told she was not there.... This had me seriously worried !!! After the doctors, ex-ray tech's nurses and everybody else who was poking and probing me was done, I was wheel chaired out to the OSHA nurse, who said that she was going to perform a drug and alcohol test on me, that it was standard policy on a work related injury such as mine. I WENT OFF ~ I said I did not turn the machine on ~ the idiot operator DID ~ are you going to drug test that jerk also ~ she proceeds to tell me no he didn't get injured !!!!

Then I am told that Jill has been sitting out in the lobby the whole time, that it is policy that until the drug test is completed I must remain isolated except by hospital staff..... EVEN HEAVILY MEDICATED I GO OFF ~ I AM ANGRY BEYOND BELIEF ~ I am injured to the point that I am, Injured at the hands of another idiot, I have to be told my condition and what I must face alone, I am lied to about me wife not being at the hospital, creating undo stress about the status of my relationship, all over policy about a &%$#*& DRUG TEST, which I have NEVER failed one in my life !!!!! Not many things set me off in this life, but let me tell you that set me off, and they did not have enough drugs available in that hospital to calm me down!!! I went off on the OSHA nurse, I went off on the Doctor who treated me, the ER admission girl, they even had to get the Executive Director of the Hospital down to ER, so I could ream him out about his hospital and what he could do with his policy....

Now even heavily medicated, I immediately contacted an attorney the next day, because most companies MAKE you use their doctors on worker comp cases. After my experience at the hospital, you know what they could do with their company doctors, my attorney promptly filed with a judge and petitioned for a change of doctors because of my condition needing specialized care, and we were granted the change and I started seeing my own doctors.

Now getting back to the title "How much is a LIFE Worth", this same company I was working for and got injured with, did not learn it's lesson with me getting hurt. Six weeks to the day of my injury, a friend of mine, technician, working on the night shift, got killed.

Working on the 3^rd shift, this technician got called down to Press 3, there was a problem with the billet loader, again it was an eye problem, the eye was not reading correctly and the billets were not loading into the press correctly for the ram to push them through the die. The only thing that saved my ass, was that I was finished working and was on my way out, when my over eager press operator turned the press back on catching my ankle by the puller. This tech had the unfortunate encounter to have an over eager press operator turn the press back on while he was still working on the machine and the ram came forward to push the billet, and instead of finding a billet, it found my friends head and crushed it completely. Killing him instantly L Rest in Peace Troy !!

So how much is a life Worth ?? ~ OSHA came in and closed the plant down for 18 hours because my friends blood had gotten into the hydraulic oil of the press.... 18 HOURS ~ That is Less time than some women are in labor for child birth !!! Closed the plant down for 18 hours because my friends bloods got into their precious hydraulic oil ~ Closed them for 18 hours ~ boy I bet that really taught them a lesson ~ In 6 weeks time they had a man's ankle sheared off and now they just killed a man !!! It comes down to a man's life is worth 18 hours of closing a plant !!!

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) another fine government agency that is working at it's best ~ NOT !!!

As part of my settlement with the company I had my accident with, and I re-read the legal documents over and over several times before writing this article it states; "As part of the terms and agreements of this settlement you MAY NOT disclose any financial agreements or settlements or you are in violation of this contract".

It says nothing about telling my story, I have never told anyone about the financial terms of my settlement. And I will tell you all the same thing I tell everyone else who asks me how I have some of the things that I have. You know the old saying "I gave an arm and a leg for this". Well I can truthfully say I gave a leg for it. I have a plate and 4 bolts in my ankle and can set off metal detectors in 13 of the major airports of this country and most courthouses ~ LOL ~ So I have been frisked and patted down by most of America's finest in uniform and have gotten to know some of them by name ~ LOL

So if you get injured on the job, do not let corporate America, your company or OSHA push you around. Hire an attorney immediately !!! Get your own doctors not the company doctors ~ it's your body and health !!

Something to think about !!~~!!

Just one man's opinion. As always, put the wind in your hair and keep the sun to your back. Be good and stay safe. Peace, Love and prosperity to all.

Good Journeys !!!

Frank WOLF

watchdog taking a BITE out of corruption!

Copyright

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™ © 2005 Tuesday August 7^th, 2007