To the editor:

I used to be the sole breadwinner in my family, and my salary allowed us to live a comfortable middle-class life. A fall at work changed all of that.

Because of my injuries, I not only lost my job — I lost any chance to hold down a fulltime job again.

In 1999, while I was working as a nurse anesthetist in Damariscotta, I suffered a bad fall, thanks to a defective chair. I landed so hard that I broke both wrists and thumbs and injured my back and hips. My injuries were so severe that after a year, I was forced to leave work.

I can no longer blow-dry my hair or open doors, windows or soda cans. I used to enjoy painting, playing the piano, and gardening, but can no longer do any of those things because I cannot use my hands normally.

When applying for jobs, I have been asked if I have received workers’ compensation, and I answer “yes.” I have been routinely turned down for jobs I know I am qualified for. I have been turned down from job after job because of my injuries. If we had not received workers’ compensation benefits, we would not have made it financially.

Yet to our lawmakers, permanent disabilities like mine aren’t real. The Maine Legislature is debating a law that sets an arbitrary time limit of 618 weeks on compensation for injured workers like me.

If my compensation had stopped only 618 weeks after my injury, it would have been financially devastating for my family. I still have four more surgeries ahead of me. If this time limit had been in place when I got hurt, my ongoing medical bills would not have been covered.

Cutting these benefits will hurt injured workers and our families in ways you cannot imagine. We need to strengthen workers’ compensation, not make it harder for injured workers who are already struggling.

I hope the Legislature will reject this proposal.

Rebecca Belanger,
Bath

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