Nightmare
When he was first admitted to the rehabilitation hospital, Dabao always had the same dream: his little daughter fell into the water, he jumped down and stretched out his hand to catch it, but he couldn’t catch it, so he burst into tears .
After waking up, pain came from his right hand, and he remembered that he was missing three fingers.
In 2015, Dabao and an apprentice partnered to overhaul the machine. He put his hand into the feeding port to operate, and at the same time asked the apprentice to slow down the machine. Rolled in his right hand. When he took out his hand, the blood had stained the white labor gloves. Dabao didn’t dare to take off his gloves, and he didn’t know if his fingers were still there, so he got into the ambulance despite the severe pain. By the time he woke up, his thumb, index and little fingers had been amputated.
After the operation, his remaining fingers could not be flexed or extended, his palms could not be used forcefully, and his right arm could only be slightly raised. He worked in Suzhou for 10 years, working 12 hours a day, with little rest. Rolling one meter of steel beams can get you three cents, and when there is more, you can get 10,000 yuan a month to support a family of five.
After losing his finger, he felt that he had become a waste, unable to take care of himself, and his family had no income. During that time, he was trapped in a rehabilitation hospital, his wife wanted to divorce him, his father suffered a cerebral infarction in his hometown, and the company was unwilling to compensate him in full. He felt his eyeballs swell and fainted, and finally fell asleep, but was awakened by a nightmare.
Commuting, punching cards, operating machines day after day, the familiar process, but it just got out of control in an instant…
Injury
With the development of the manufacturing industry and the acceleration of urban construction, work-related injuries have appeared.
According to the 2020 Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Human Resources and Social Security [1], a total of 1.12 million people were identified as work-related injuries in 2020, which means that more than 3,000 people are on the job every day. Hurt. According to the current “Regulations on Industrial Injury Insurance”, after the occurrence of a work-related injury, the enterprise shall advance the compliant medical expenses in advance, and conduct the work-related injury identification within 30 days. After the identification, after treatment and rehabilitation, the enterprise or employee can apply for a labor capacity appraisal, and the amount of compensation will be determined according to the results of the appraisal rating.
(a worker with a foot injury)
The manufacturing industry accommodates a large number of migrant workers, and a large number of work-related injuries occur due to mechanical operation, long-term overtime and lack of safety training. For a long time, enterprises have paid more attention to compensation, neglected prevention and neglected rehabilitation, and hoped to settle all disputes as soon as possible. However, for injured employees, different degrees of disability are accompanied for life, and they face many difficulties in returning to society and work, which cannot be solved by compensation.
The Pearl River Delta region with developed manufacturing and proximity to Hong Kong was the first to embrace the concept of medical rehabilitation. In 2001, the Guangdong Provincial Work Injury Rehabilitation Center was established, and in 2004 it became the first comprehensive pilot unit of work injury rehabilitation in the country. In 2007, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security issued the “Notice on Printing and Distributing the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Pilot Work of Work Injury Rehabilitation”, but the process from concept, policy to actual implementation was very long.
In 2009, 19-year-old Ye Zhonglin was working in Dongguan. After working overtime for a long time, the tip of his middle finger was accidentally cut off by a machine. After three months of treatment, he was identified as a Class 10 work-related injury, and at that time, he had never heard of rehabilitation.
After being injured, Ye Zhonglin left the assembly line, traveled around, and then came to Suzhou, where he joined the Star Home Social Work Center to provide necessary help to the injured workers. In 2015, he established a cooperative relationship with a rehabilitation hospital in Suzhou, and opened a workstation in the corner of the second floor of the hospital, where he provides psychological and occupational rehabilitation-related counseling for workers two days a week.
In the same year, Jiangsu Province issued the Measures for Implementing the Regulations on Work Injury Insurance, which clearly stated: “After treatment or rehabilitation, workers with work-related injuries will be disabled, affect their ability to work, or be suspended for a pay period after their injuries are relatively stable. If it is full, the employer, the injured worker or their close relatives shall promptly submit an application for labor ability appraisal to the municipal labor ability appraisal committee in the community, and submit relevant materials in accordance with the regulations. Only after the injured person has received adequate medical treatment and rehabilitation, can the labor capacity appraisal be carried out.
(Ye Zhonglin (middle) learned about the situation from the injured workers in the rehabilitation hospital)
Businesses and injured people generally have no awareness of recovery. In Jiangsu, there is no clear implementation method for who is responsible for informing whether rehabilitation is required after work-related injury treatment. Taking Suzhou as an example, according to the social security data released by Jiangsu Province, the number of people enjoying work-related injury insurance in Suzhou in 2020 will be 31,000. Currently, there is a cooperative designated rehabilitation hospital and a designated occupational disease rehabilitation hospital in Suzhou. There are about 1,000 or 2,000 cases a year.” Ye Zhonglin has been volunteering in this hospital for more than six years. According to his estimation, a large number of employees with work-related injuries have not entered the rehabilitation process.
Rehabilitation
After Dabao’s first hand surgery, he heard other patients talk about “recovery”. “I searched with my mobile phone, and then asked the doctor if there was a rehabilitation department in this hospital.” The doctor told them that there was no rehabilitation department, but he could find a therapist to “break his hands”. Better, chat with the physiotherapist, she said that I need to go to a professional rehabilitation hospital.” Dabao asked around to find out the application and process of work injury rehabilitation.
(In 2017, Ye Zhonglin held a group discussion with injured workers in a rehabilitation hospital)
At the hospital, the rehabilitation doctor evaluated Dabao’s condition and arranged a rehabilitation program. He can recover for two courses of three months each.
Programs of rehabilitation include physical therapy, electrical stimulation of the nerves, and other hand strength and nerve exercises. After the first course of treatment, the strength of Dabao’s remaining fingers gradually recovered, and his fingers were no longer curled into a ball. The shoulders and elbows were pulled by the machine due to an accident and could not be lifted up. After daily practice of raising the hands, they could also be lifted to the height of the shoulders.
The improvement of limbs gave Dabao great comfort: during his recovery, he went to Shanghai to consult prosthetics and met a worker who was also disabled in his right hand. , The muscles from the arms to the fingers have been severely atrophied, like dry branches.
In 2016, Liu Chaoyu, who was working in an electronics factory in Suzhou, fell and was injured. He was standing on a three-meter-high movable steel frame to repair the air conditioner. During the movement, he accidentally fell and fractured his right heel bone.
He went home on his own to recuperate after the operation, and three months later, he suddenly received a call telling him to go to a rehabilitation hospital for treatment. “I don’t know which government department made the call, so I followed the instructions to find a doctor.” Liu Chaoyu guessed that maybe his injury could be lowered after his recovery, so it became a case of the government’s active notification. He was admitted to the rehabilitation hospital on crutches. After two courses of rehabilitation, he can walk without the crutches.
In 2017, he was assessed a Class 9 disability, and as a rule of thumb his condition should have been a Class 8 prior to recovery.
The benefits of rehabilitation are obvious. It can not only promote the injured to restore their ability to live and work to the greatest extent, and reintegrate into society, but also make the identification and compensation of disability more objective and reasonable.
In manufacturing-intensive cities, work-related injuries often involve fractures of limbs and nerve damage. For such injured patients, the earlier rehabilitation intervention can effectively reduce the degree of disability and prevent complications.
Different from simply seeking medical treatment, work-related injury rehabilitation involves legal procedures and needs to be paid in advance by the company and coordinated by work-related injury insurance. Both parties are often delayed due to lack of awareness, poor communication, or disputes. recovery time.
In October 2020, Qian Qiuying’s fingers were severely crushed by the noodle rolling machine.
After the operation, she returned to the company’s dormitory for more than a month. During the re-examination, her fingers were severely adhered and her palms were tightly curled. At this time, the doctor said that she needed to recover in this situation.
(Qian Qiuying’s hand underwent surgery)
The company always wanted to get rid of the injured Qian Qiuying as soon as possible. At the beginning, when she asked for a work-related injury, the company said: You are not a work-related injury., you are not working on a construction site. After the operation, the company asked her to return to work. When she proposed to recover, the company asked, “Is this necessary?” She asked around and asked the doctor to issue a certificate, which forced the company to cooperate with the procedures.
At the end of 2020, Qian Qiuying was admitted to a rehabilitation hospital in Suzhou. Because she was afraid that her family would be worried, she kept hiding it from them. Every time her daughter asked for a video, she would walk outside the hospital building, hang up after saying a few words in a hurry, and after returning to the ward, she couldn’t stop crying.
(Qian Qiuying’s palm is obviously scarred)
She spent that Spring Festival in a rehabilitation hospital. Pain, loneliness and cynicism from the company made her on the verge of collapse. She felt breathless for a time. Sleeping pills were prescribed at her request, and she relied on them to fall asleep throughout her recovery. Although she was careful to hide her emotions, her depression attracted the attention of her patients and Ye Zhonglin. At their suggestion, she went to the Psychiatry Department of Suzhou First People’s Hospital for an examination and was diagnosed with a “depressed state”.
“I couldn’t imagine it before, the feeling of being so panicked that I couldn’t breathe”, 46-year-old Qian Qiuying devoted most of her life to taking care of her family. work injury. She has no friends who can talk to her in Suzhou, and her husband is engaged in high-voltage electricity-related work in her hometown. She is afraid that her husband will be distracted, so she did not tell him. After the operation, she lived in the company’s dormitory. She could only use her left hand to clean the clothes. Seeing her clumsy movements, she couldn’t help crying.
(Qian Qiuying’s diagnosis certificate)
Once a limb is disabled, one’s confidence is gradually wiped out by the details of life.
In the rehabilitation hospital, the therapist will guide the patient to adapt to the life after the disability: if the right hand cannot be used, he will learn to eat and play with the mobile phone with the left hand; if he cannot walk on one foot, he must practice crutches.
The hospital arranged for nurses to feed Dabao, who always chases people away, preferring to eat a little bit with his left hand, “I don’t want to feel like a waste.”
Before the injury, Dabao was the only source of income for the family, which is also the source of his confidence. After losing three fingers, he concluded that it would be difficult to find a job in the future, he had no income, and he was ashamed of his parents, wife and daughter. This worry came true before he was discharged from the hospital. First, his wife quarreled frequently and even filed for divorce. Not long after, Dabao’s father suffered a cerebral infarction in his hometown. After he was discharged from the hospital, he returned to work at the original factory, and the factory negotiated the amount of compensation. This series of chain reactions caused by work-related injuries piled up into a mountain, making Dabao feel small and incompetent.
Before the epidemic, Ye Zhonglin visited the rehabilitation hospital twice a week, introduced workers in similar situations to know each other, and established a group of workers injured at work, opening an outlet for their anxiety and depression.
He and Dabao, Liu Chaoyu, and Qian Qiuying met in the hospital and became their listeners, helping them regain their self-confidence, understand the compensation standards, and return to society.
Psychological Reconstruction
Reintegration requires not only physical rehabilitation, but also psychological rehabilitation and career planning.
The relevant implementation measures of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China clearly pointed out that work-related injury rehabilitation includes medical rehabilitation, occupational rehabilitation and social rehabilitation, but at present, most areas lack effective means of occupational rehabilitation and social rehabilitation. In the treatment hall of the rehabilitation hospital, you can see some rehabilitation facilities for occupational operations, such as valve turning, electrician operation, trolley training, etc., but this is not very helpful for actual employment.
Among the workers Ye Zhonglin contacted, those with obvious physical disabilities could hardly find jobs again, and those without obvious disabilities could find jobs only by concealing their work-related injuries. According to national policy, companies employing disabled persons can enjoy tax incentives. “The company would rather hire employees who are born with disabilities than those with minor work-related injuries like us.” Dabao recognized this reality after frequently encountering obstacles in his job search, “They think that we have had work-related injuries before, will it be more prone to accidents? Or it is easy to have disputes with the company.”
(In 2016, Ye Zhonglin organized workers in the rehabilitation hospital to learn about labor laws and other related knowledge.)
I went out to work when I was a teenager. Dabao had no concept of rest, nor did he know how to pass the time. He is responsible for picking up the children, cooking, and doing housework. When he took his daughter to the supermarket, he always put his hands in his pockets, and the daughter said, take it out quickly, like a thief. What frustrates him even more is that he has no income and dare not spend any money casually.
Dabao is not happy to receive the one-time compensation. The money is not enough to provide for food and clothing, let alone support for three children and a sick father. He looks at job postings on his mobile phone every day, but dares not apply until he After swiping a message asking people to fill up the event, he put on gloves on his hand and tried it.
“Forty dollars for a two-hour event, just go there and sit, no one asks me. That was the first time I made money after my injury, and it was done on the spot. I went to the supermarket and bought my daughter a candied orange.”
(Dabao is carrying the sugar orange with his injured hand, ready to go home after get off work)
Da Bao later did a lot of work, most of which were daily work with a salary of 120 yuan a day. Twice, he came close to getting a formal job. In a waste recycling station, he was responsible for handling the compacted waste plastics, a basket of 50 to 60 catties. He moved quickly, and people valued his ability to work, and they even raised their wages.
But after the first month, the recycling station was forced to close, and Dabao lost his job again.
Junior is mainly working as a temporary security guard, guarding doors in commercial streets, assisting in urban management work, etc. He hardly needs to do anything, and he never takes out his hands. Once he worked as a temporary security guard for a company for several days. The company’s security captain suggested that he officially join the company, and he looked embarrassed: “I’ll tell you the truth, my hand is injured, and your company won’t want me. “The other party first said that he didn’t mind and wanted to look at his hand. When Dabao showed his right hand, the other party was stunned and said that he would communicate with the leader, and Dabao would not be allowed to go to work the next day.
Liu Chaoyu, who suffered a fractured right calcaneus, recovered well. After leaving the rehabilitation hospital, he recuperated at home and negotiated compensation with the company, and began to think about his future work.
After graduating from technical secondary school, he went to work in Guangzhou from his hometown of Henan. He met his wife in Guangzhou while working in a leather factory. He got married at the age of 22 and had three children, all of whom are now in his hometown. Henan, under the care of parents. In 2011, in his early 30s, he moved to Suzhou with his wife, both of whom had to work to support their family.
He remembered that he had seen a flyer for free technical training before, so he went to the talent center in Suzhou to inquire, and signed up for electrician training and forklift operation courses. The vocational training provided by the government is free, and the tuition fee can be refunded after passing the examination if the foreign household registration is qualified. He went to classes three times a week for four hours each time. He was very unfamiliar with the theory at first, but after entering the practice, Liu Chaoyu quickly mastered it.
(At the end of 2016, Liu Chaoyu participated in a group discussion of workers injured at work to discuss issues such as employment direction)
Despite getting an electrician’s license and a forklift license, Liu Chaoyu took a lot of work to find a job. He couldn’t stand for long periods of time, and he couldn’t do heavy work. He had no experience as an electrician, and most factories would only let him work as a general worker.
He found a factory, which was not strictly controlled. He didn’t have to stand for a long time, and he was paid as a general worker, but he did work related to machine maintenance. He learned by doing, consulted the engineers in the factory when he encountered problems, and mastered most of the methods of machine circuit maintenance.
During the time he was at work, he worked on painkillers during the day. At night, he went home to apply plaster and soak in hot water. His wife learned massage techniques to help him relax. After working for four years, Liu Chaoyu jumped to a foreign-funded factory in April this year and successfully passed the interview to become a skilled worker with a higher salary than before the injury.
(Outside the Rehabilitation Hospital Building, Ye Zhonglin is chatting with the injured worker)
With strong willpower, Liu Chaoyu forced himself to recover intensively, and finally threw away the crutches, learned techniques and returned to the factory to repair his life damaged by work-related injuries.
After Liu Chaoyu was re-employed, Ye Zhonglin often asked him to exchange learning experience and work experience with other workers, but with little success. “Everyone has a different experience and degree of injury. My luck lies in my good recovery and the support of my family, but I can’t force others based on my experience.” Before the injury, Liu Chaoyu didn’t think about learning, just going to work every day has drained his energy. Now he plans to learn automation programming and adapt to the trend of upgrading and automation of machines in the factory.
(Qian Qiuying is going home after get off work, and the scars on her hands are not easy to find)
Qian Qiuying found a job in a fast food restaurant after finishing her recovery. Working from four in the morning to three in the afternoon, the thumb and index finger of the right hand were only slightly injured, and I could easily squeeze a small soup bag. After a day, my palm was aching. She is still negotiating compensation with the company, and plans to return to her hometown after receiving the compensation.
Work injury made Da Bao a startled bird. If you break one or two while washing dishes, you will be stunned for a long time, even when you cross the road.Scared: “I also thought about buying a battery car to run takeout, but I was afraid of accidents and felt it was very dangerous.”
He felt that his body was not as good as before, and he was often inexplicably flustered, and he was out of breath when going up the stairs. “Now that I think about my previous job, I’m afraid. I deal with machines every day, twelve hours a day, pour a glass of water next to me in summer, and don’t drink a sip until I get off work.”
He doesn’t know what post-traumatic stress disorder is, nor does he think about seeking psychological help, but he does not have a day to make a day-off: “A little is a little, and children need When I go to school, I will pay wherever I can, and they can’t blame me after I finish my contribution. I don’t dare to think about the future.”
(At the request of the interviewee, Liu Chaoyu, Dabao and Qian Qiuying are all pseudonyms in the text)
References:
[1]http:https://www.mohrss.gov.cn/SYrlzyhshbzb/zwgk/szrs/tjgb/202107/W020210728376021444478.pdf
Editors: Wu Jiaxiang, Ye Zhengxing
Text: Jiang Jin | Photography: Xie Kuangshi
Proofreading: Wu Yihe | Typesetting: Li Yongmin
Operation: Han Ningning | Coordinator: Wu Wei