~Vancouver Sun~ The Games went on as planned, but for one of the first responders at the Whistler Sliding Centre that day, life did not. Days later, Terrance Kosikar tried to commit suicide.
“Four days after that, I was diagnosed with PTSD, and everything fell apart from there,” the first aid attendant told Postmedia News.
Kosikar’s story is not unusual among first responders, who frequently deal with traumatic events. Neither is his struggle to get help from WorkSafeBC for the mental injury he says he suffered doing his job at the luge track on Feb. 12, 2010.
He is one of several first responders applauding a resolution that is to be brought to the Union of B.C. Municipalities’ annual meeting next month. It would ask the provincial government to change WorkSafeBC legislation so that illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder would be presumed to have happened at work until proven otherwise. Currently, the first responder must prove their job led to PTSD.
Full story on Vancouver Sun – First responder resolution headed to UBCM