THREADS OF LIFE: Finding hope after tragedy By Susan Haldane It was late on a summer afternoon when Carolyn Sim got the phone call that would change her life. Carolyn’s partner Dan Pelletier had fallen from a ladder and landed on his head. He was being taken for x-rays, but he was okay, Dan’s co-worker told Carolyn. “I don’t know how I knew, but I just knew that it was bad, and that Danny was never coming home again,” Car- olyn says. She worked as a brain injury rehabilitation coun- sellor, so she knew just how serious head injuries can be. When the next call came, Carolyn’s fears were con- firmed – Dan had severe brain injuries and had gone into a coma. The regional hospital where he’d been taken was doing emergency surgery to reduce swelling, and then planned to rush him to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto where a neurosurgeon was standing by. “I almost dropped the phone; I couldn’t breathe, I felt like I was suffocating,” Carolyn says. “Everything started to swirl around me.” Along with their two teenage sons and Dan’s parents, Carolyn hurried to Toronto where Dan went through an- other surgery and was placed on life support. But Dan’s condition did not improve. Knowing his feelings, Carolyn made the heart breaking decision to remove the life sup- port. Two weeks after his fall, Dan died with his family at his side. Dan was working in residential construction, but haz- ards related to ladders, and to working at heights in gen- 10 – May-June 2016 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report eral, are common across many sectors. In Canada, more than 42,000 workers are injured each year in falls (See http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/safety_haz/falls.html). More than a third of these injuries are falls from heights. The remainder are slips and falls, classified as “falls on the same level.” Dan’s death was devastating for Carolyn and her family. The boys had been very close to their dad, sharing a love of motorcycles and motocross racing. They stopped rac- ing, and struggled as they went through some of life’s major milestones – graduations, relationships, jobs and parenthood – without their dad to talk it over with. As for Carolyn herself, “I stayed strong for my children and family on the outside but I felt like I lost everything – my life, my best friend, my husband, the one person I could always count on.” Carolyn found support through Threads of Life – the As- sociation for Workplace Tragedy Family Support. Threads of Life (www.threadsoflife.ca) was created by other fami- lies living with the results of workplace fatalities, serious injury and work related diseases. Threads of Life offers a program that pairs people with volunteers who have been through a similar experience – for example someone like Carolyn would be paired with another widow who could be a listening ear and shoulder to lean on. Threads of Life also offers information about the complex world of work- place investigations, inquests and compensation, and it provides family members with ways they can take action by helping to prevent future workplace tragedies.