Quake victim’s long fight for help
Anna Leask investigates how ACC failed a Christchurch survivor
Awoman almost killed in the Christchurch quake — crawling out of rubble with eight broken vertebrae — has been fighting ACC for more than a year to get injury funding and support reinstated after she was wrongly cut off in 2013.
Bonnie Singh was working as a receptionist at the Southern Ink tattoo studio in February 2011. She was chatting to trainee tattoo artist and close friend Matti McEachan when the city started to shake.
The pair ran for the door, but Singh was hit by a slab of falling concrete, breaking her back and knocking her unconscious. When she came around she managed to drag herself to safety through a tiny hole in the rubble where the front of the studio had been.
McEachan did not make it. He was crushed by falling masonry and died instantly.
Singh also suffered a head injury and concussion and was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unable to work after the quake and with ongoing medical issues, Singh was initially covered by ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) payments.
But in early 2013 she was told her PTSD was “resolved” and soon after that, upon learning her physical fractures had healed, ACC advised Singh she had been assessed as being able to work 30 hours a week or more in her pre-injury employment.
She was told at that stage she was no longer entitled to weekly compensation and “all other supports”.
She said she protested, stating she was still in severe pain and her PTSD was far from “resolved”. But it made no difference.
Believing she was no longer entitled to anything from the agency, from then on Singh paid for all medical expenses relating to her pain, head injury and concussion out of her own pocket.
Consequently, neither Singh nor her GP contacted ACC from 2013 to 2019.
“I didn’t think I could get anything, I didn’t have the energy to fight. I was told that my bones had healed, that there was no more PTSD and they told me to get back to work and that it was basically time to get on with my life,” she told the Herald.
“I was like, ‘What is my life now’? The whole city was destroyed, I had no job, I was still in pain and emotionally, things were heavy — there was so much anxiety.
“I had a kid to look after, I had to go to Winz [Work and Income] and beg for money for food because I couldn’t actually physically work any more than I was. It was pretty dark.”
Since the quake she has trained and qualified as a tattoo artist and is the cofounder of Arcana tattoo studio in Lyttelton.
In mid-2019, frustrated at having to fund her own treatment just so she could work and provide for her young daughter, she sought the help of ACC advocate Fiona Radford. Radford looked into Singh’s case and battled back and forth with ACC to reinstate weekly compensation payments.
In the past year Radford managed to get ACC to fund a cordless tattoo gun and hydraulic bed to make it easier for Singh to work — which she still is not able to do fulltime due to pain and ongoing concussion symptoms and injury-related fatigue.
Then last month, after a lengthy and complex fight, ACC agreed Singh should not have been cut off. The agency told her its initial decision had been replaced and she was now deemed “incapacitated for pre-injury employment” from the week compensation was cut in 2013 until now.
ACC is now working through a process of calculating a lump-sum back payment for Singh.
“I was expecting Fiona to read my file and say, ‘Yeah, we can get you some acupuncture’. That’s all I really wanted them to fund for me,” Singh said. “But then she came back to me and said, ‘Holy hell, this is deep’, and I found out that it had been stuffed up.
“I got really emotional, I broke down . . . I didn’t realise until then how much the last 10 years has sucked for me, to have to spend all these years struggling, thinking if ACC wouldn’t help me then I mustn’t be that bad.”
Singh said the past few years could have been very different for her — and much easier — had her funding not been cut.
“I definitely would have been able to focus on my healing rather than the amount of pressure that was on me to get on with life. I would have gotten the treatment I needed that would have relieved a lot of my pain.”
She added: “I have been fighting for my life since the earthquake, fighting to be alive, fighting to survive. Being on ACC would have made this all so much easier.”
ACC chief operating officer Mike Tully said the decision to cut Singh’s funding was based on “independent medical advice” that said her injuries were “no longer stopping her from returning to work”.
That decision had now been revoked. “We agree she hasn’t recovered from her 2011 injuries and have been working with her to reinstate and backdate entitlements,” Tully told the Herald.
“Bonnie has cover for physical and mental injuries resulting from the earthquake.
“We acknowledge that parts of this process could’ve been done faster and have apologised to Bonnie for these delays. We’d like to acknowledge the strength and courage Bonnie’s shown following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, and we have a great deal of sympathy for her and other survivors.”
The apology to Singh — in the bottom of an email to Radford — came last Monday, three days after Tully responded to the
Radford said the apology — in an email — was not accepted as it was“offensive”, “unprofessional” and “not even on a letterhead”.
“An email addressed to only the advocate from ACC does not equate to an acceptable formal apology,” she said.
Radford said the amount of time it took to get Singh’s weekly payments reinstated was frustrating and unacceptable.
Singh said the apology didn’t really mean much given the way she has struggled over the years. She was more interested in making sure others did not go through the same “hell”.
Tully acknowledged that but said when Radford approached ACC last year a new assessment was deemed necessary due to the length of time since Singh’s last contact with the agency and her “complex” injuries.
However, that assessment did not go ahead because the information ACC needed was already on her file from her initial 2011 claim.
“We’ve acknowledged that since Bonnie re-engaged that we could’ve worked faster . . . We acknowledge that parts of this process could’ve been done faster and have apologised to Bonnie for these delays,” he said.
Tully said ACC was “committed” to working with Singh to “make sure she’s receiving the help and support she needs to live an independent life”.
“Bonnie got a lump sum in 2013 and has asked for that to be reassessed in light of the additional diagnoses which is currently under way,” he said.
While Singh’s case was not handled well, Tully was satisfied other claims from other disaster victims were being managed properly.
“We have supported the recovery of thousands of New Zealanders from events of significant trauma, such as the Christchurch earthquakes, the Pike River Mine disaster, Whakaari, and the Christchurch terror attacks,” he said.
“We are proud to support people’s recovery and help them overcome these times of adversity to get back to living an independent life.”
Singh said it had been a hard process but she was pleased she went through it. She wanted to speak out about her journey to help others.
“I am so lucky to have had Fiona — this process was mentally and emotionally awful, it dragged everything back up from 2011,” she said.
“Now I can do the things I have wanted to do for myself to heal, to get right and not be pushing myself to the limit every single day just to survive, in heaps of pain.
“I’m not bitter at all — I want other people to know my story. There might be other people out there with similar injuries, or worse who don’t realise what they could or should be getting.
Singh said she was “in awe” of Radford’s passion for advocacy and knowledge of the system. “She is amazing, relentless; she knew what she was doing and wouldn’t let go.”
Radford is continuing to engage with ACC to ensure Singh gets everything she is entitled to.
Though she was happy Singh was finally getting funding, she was very angry that the case had taken so long and said ACC “completely failed in its responsibilities”.
“She is going to get her justice,” Radford vowed. “It is not fair to have been treated as Bonnie has been.”
I didn’t realise how much the last 10 years has sucked . . . all these years struggling, thinking if ACC wouldn’t help me then I mustn’t be that bad. Bonnie Singh