Dizzy Dee

Have you ever had to deal with Accident Claims at work?  While I was in England, working in a vegetable & salad factory, I cut my finger whilst trying to prep lettuce… It was a disaster. We worked on a production line, and when the supervisor saw my blood all over the place she was close to hysterical. LOL

She yelled at everyone to stop working, in the typical high pitched voice with British accent which I’d come to know so well, and even become fond of.  The panic stricken staff all put down their knives obediently, then stood at least a meter away from the line, which was already stopped after the supervisor had hit the emergency stop button.  Most of the staff being Iraqi or Indian, and not always understanding the Brits so easily, they didn’t quite know what had happened, but they knew there was blood, and that the supevisor was yelling - not a good combination.  The supervisor was an over weight woman, that somewhat resembled a man, as she had a beard (unshaved), and every now and again you could see her mustache surfacing (she shaved that).  People were scared of her really.  Petrified might be a better way to describe this.

Luckily I worked on the line with a lot of friends, one of who was nice enough to escort me to the first aid room. He had to support me while walking though, as I felt a little faint - I can’t handle the site of blood My boyfriend walked about 100 meters from us while we were on our way to the first aid room, and though we waved at him, he just waved back. LOL. I wonder why it never occurred to him that something strange was going on, since I was walking whilst literally hanging on to another guy. LOL. I guess he really must have trusted me?

I’m terribly scared of getting stitches, but when I got to the first aid room, they said I needed to go to the hospital. STITCHES. I was so panicky, but eventually agreed to go. Good thing they only gave me sterri-strips instead, but I had to brave myself for a tetanus injection.

Accidents at work happen so quickly. I never planned to cut myself, promise. I was however booked off for 2 weeks (for cutting my finger?), and I got compensated by the factory, firstly for injury at work, and then I still got my salary.

In South Africa I don’t think it works like that. You’d need to have yourself insured specifically for something like that. If you’ve had an accident at work, and you weren’t insured for it, you can always turn to KeyPoint legal services, as they special in helping people claim for accidents like these.