INTACS - CORNEAL GRAFT AND EMPLOYER DISPUTE UPDATE

[alison falshaw]

HI FOLKS.

Many thanks for all your support and advice. I wanted to update you with whats been happening the last couple of weeks.
After the first meeting with my employer to discuss my return to work in which they indicated they were struggling to find a role for me I consulted a solicitor.
I have had a meeting with my solicitor and was advised to raise a statutory grievance with my employer for not making reasonable adjustments to facilitate my return to work hence I have suffered a losss of earnings. My grievance also covered the fact that they havent attempted to contact me and keep me upto date with the company's progress etc and are now indicating that their is no role for me. We also advised them that I feel

My grievance hearing took place last week ( it was arranged for the previous week but sadly my grandmother passed away). It was held by my line manager ( he has been appointed during my sick leave) and the meeting was fairly informal and relaxed - this surprised me entirely. I had a whole load of formal questions to ask but i didnt need to in the end. My line manager had a set of guidance notes from ACAS and consulted them during the course of the meeting. We discussed my grievance letter paragraph by paragraph and the meeting concluded with them going away to consider and to notify me of their decision in five working days - latest tomorrow. As yet I havent received anythign from them.

Today I went to see my consultant, Mr Morgan at Sunderland Eye Infirmary. He checked that the intacs are still in place and also my vision - just incase some miraculous event had taken place and the intacs had finally worked for me. Sadly there has still be no improvement to my vision. We discussed the graft procedure, how a cornea is selected etc and the risks of receiveing a cornea with hepapatitis/hiv etc. We decided to leave the intacs in until my graft, probably early part of the new year.

Although I am prepared to take my grievance to an employment tribunal, I am hoping that an agreement can be reached without the need to go to court.

I must say to anyone who is needing help with adjustments at work or help with getting to work, back into work etc the Action for Blind People are really helpful and supportive. Well at least the local team have been so far with me.

For those of you who have had similar problems your comments and experience are welcome. I am very nervous of having a graft, I just keep thinking if its going to go wrong then it will be with me. I seem to be the only one who has had intacs at sunderland and havent worked out.

Thanks to the member who has posted his graft diary - cant rememeber his name right now - this is really useful. I am under the impression that my op will be a day case and I will be home the same day. Is this the case for most??

Bye for now

Ali

[rosemary johnson]

Hi.
About day case or otherwise:
I think this depends onthe hospital.
My graft was a day case, and I think most of them at that hospital are (unless anything goes drastically wrong, that is, they'll let you go home.)
If you have th op under a local, of course, there's no reason you shouldn't go home.
Even with generals, the ""modern"" anaesthetics are supposed to wear off quick enough and be ""safe"" enough you can go home the same day - though they tend to insist you have someone to go home with you and don't let you get the tube/train/bus.
But I think there are some hospitals where they normally keep you in over night.
WHich is preferable depends on the person, too - they'll almost undoubtedly want to see you the next day, to take the dressing off and clean the eye after 24 hours and set you up with the first set of drops, and schedule the first follow-up appointment. Depending how far you are from the hospital and how nice and handy a chauffeur you have, it may be easier to stay overnight in the hospital than go home and have to come back the next morning.
Rosemary

[Andrew MacLean]

I am sorry that you are having such a bad time with your employer. Do download the leaflet on the KC Group site and give it to your solicitor. That way he will be informed about the condition and the limitations it places on us and also the possibilities that remain for people with KC.

I agree with Rosemary. I was kept overnight after each of my grafts, but that was because I live a distance from the hopsital and they did not want me to have to get up at an absurdly early hour to make my way into the hospital for the clinic the next day. Instead they kept me in hospital where I was wakened at an absurdly early hour to allow the nurses to get on with their duties before the clinic. :/

Andrew