DH broke his arm in July. He developed CRPS during the time the pot was on and as soon as the hospital removed it. He was taken in to see a consultant and they told him it was second or third stage.
He has always worked but his job involved heavy lifting so he was signed off. He sees the pain clinic every week, his occupational therapist for mirror box therapy weekly and is seeing a counsellor weekly to help him come to terms with the chronic and constant pain he's in.
He has begged them to amputate and his GP has backed this request up but there is no guarantee that it would stop it could make the pain worse.
So if that wasn't enough when work stopped paying him we had to claim ESA. He has never claimed any out of work benefits since leaving school we did get WTC. Three weeks of claiming and they called him for a medical.
The woman who did it was very nice but basically said that they will probably think well he's got another hand that he can use so should go to work. It was all tick boxes that she filled in. She was sympathetic but it gets sent off and all they see is he has one bad hand not that he can't stay awake because of the medication he's on or that he can't fasten his own jeans up or go to school and pick his children up. He can't even sit down without rocking or standing up as pacing is the only thing that he can do when he's in so much pain.
She did seem interested in his mental health as his doctor has wrote he's suicidal and anxious :(.
I'm so scared they will stop his ESA we are hardly surviving as it is. All our WTC has stopped all our savings have gone I can hardly afford to feed us as it is.
I'm more scared the affect it will have on DH though he already feels like he is scrounging and people are looking down on him and if they say you're fit for work and stop his money he is going to spiral more.
I can't even support us we have a toddler and 3 older dc and he can't look aftert them he can't cook, he falls asleep randomly, he can't clean up the toddler if she has an accident. I can't even work nights if there is an emergency and he's on all his painkillers wtf would happen.
But atos isn't interested I've read so many horror stories lately and I can't believe that they are leaving people to starve and die because they've ticked a box that says they can lift a hand above their heads or are ok answering a phone to a stranger.
His consultant and GP and psychologist have wrote letters supporting him yet someone who probably isn't even a doctor has our life in their hands right now. I've read stories where people have taken evidence in like blood test results and scan pictures and still are declared fit for work.
Why are they doing this to people who need the pat help? I've also read today that legal aid is stopping when it's a benefit issue so thousands of people are trying to defend themselves against these massive organizations.
It just doesn't seem very fair.