Pacemaker is limiting me.

• by pstorer
• 2013-09-25 01:09:21
• General Posting
• 1599 views
• 3 comments

I recently had a 'full heart block' back in April of this year, which led to me being implanted with a pacemaker. I am a plater/welder in the UK, the job that I had was a life saver, it was my first permanent job since redundancies a few years back. At first my work managers were very supportive, they told me that I should take all the time time off I needed. They also required various letters from my cardiologist and doctor to confirm that my pacemaker would not be any hazard in the work place. I fulfilled all there requests, my cardiologist had stated that I would be fine in a welding site, with a few procedures in place, again the workplace managers were very supportive and went a long with everything. Until recently a new manager has been introduced and decided to call me in at the office fifteen minutes before the end of my shift to tell me that my work was not as good and that I was sacked. Obviously my work was not the issue, if it had been an issue surely it would have been mentioned previously. My conclusion is that the pacemaker posed too much of a health risk to the company and that they decided to lie to get rid of me. After this I found temporary employment at another company, I hadn't mentioned my pacemaker as I was not given any medical forms to fill in. Today I have found out that my previous manager that had sacked me was the old manager of the new place and he decided to tell the new place about my heart condition. Again if I had been sacked because of my work standard how come he has gone out of his way to tell my new manager, I do not understand his motive. So basically my pace maker is limiting me drastically, I have been asked to fill in medical forms at this new place, but they probably will get rid of me also. I don't know what to do or what advice to seek, I have been a welder for 35 years and I do not want to have to seek a new less rewarding profession just because I have a device planted in me.