Getting her hands on more than a million dollars every day didn’t make Stephanie Connell happy. After each session counting huge wads of cash in the bank vault where she worked, the Christchurch woman would fight for breath and a rash would pop up on her skin.
Despite extensive tests, doctors were baffled by her mystery illness, which became so bad that she quit her job with Westpac.Stephanie believes the cause is something most people can’t get enough of – money. Stephanie (52) had worked for the bank since 1998 but when she took the job at the vault in March 2007, counting between $300,000 and $1.3 million a day, her health seemed to take a turn for the worse.
“I was working in an enclosed concrete box with no windows or doors. No fresh air ever got in there,” she says. “Three months into it, I developed scabs on the inside of my nose and felt very cold all the time. But when I left the vault I would warm up.”
Her health continued to decline until, in July 2008, she suddenly developed difficulty breathing, chronic anxiety, depression and a metallic taste in her mouth. “I felt like I was being poisoned,” she says. The first doctor Stephanie consulted diagnosed her with asthma and the second referred her to a psychiatrist. But Stephanie was convinced that her ill-health was linked to her work and, looking on the internet, she discovered that her symptoms matched those of oultiple Chemical Sensitivity (oCS) – a controversial condition that’s still under debate by doctors.
Stephanie, however, has no doubt about its existence. “I believe that I had got oCS from exposure to large amounts of plastic in an unventilated area,” she says. The next doctor that Stephanie saw in october 2008 accepted her explanation and wrote her a medical certificate excusing her from working in the vault. Westpac transferred Stephanie to the counter, but she insists she was so sensitive to cash that every dollar she touched added to her misery. They then offered Stephanie a filing position but she says she was, by that stage, too sick to even go into work.
“I spent six weeks totally bed-ridden and I had to live on protein shakes. I was so light-headed I could barely get up by myself,” Stephanie recalls. When ACC refused to accept that her condition was a workplace injury, Stephanie says that she was given the option of returning to her job in the vault or taking a different position as a bank teller.
Stephanie decided to quit and she’s been off work ever since. Now living on a sickness benefit, with barely enough money to cover her mortgage, Stephanie is still fighting for Westpac to accept responsibility for her illness so she can claim ACC, which would cover 80% of her wages.
“I felt like my job was killing me,” she says. “By the time I left, I was in a terrible state. “oy employment situation is now dire. I am looking for a new job but so far I haven’t had any luck.” Stephanie’s workmates have not developed oCS but she says that’s because not everyone is sensitive to handling chemicals. “It’s to do with your body’s ability to detox – some people are better than others.”
She’s disappointed that an allergy specialist and another doctor refused to accept oCS as the cause of her illness. “The doctor thought it was anxiety. She refused to give me a sickness certificate,” says Stephanie. Stephanie has since found a more sympathetic GP, Dr Ted Pearson of Christchurch, who has advised her to try saunas three times a week to sweat out the chemicals. Dr Pearson says he has about 15 to 20 patients affected by oCS.
“often my patients turn to me after other doctors tell them it’s all in their minds,” he says. “I didn’t know Stephanie before she was unwell but I believe she’s a straight-forward person.” Dr Pearson also points out that asbestos was considered safe to use in building work until a cancer link was proven. Stephanie, who believes she also has chronic fatigue as well as oCS, says she cannot afford the saunas.
“I tried exercise but it brings back the chronic fatigue,” she says. “There’s no cure for my condition – my body has to release the chemicals in its own time.”
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