After more than 10 years I have decided to share this story with the world, especially those in the world where work safety is a part of your daily life.
Recently due to an accident I had X-Rays taken and the doctor saw something therefore requesting more X-Rays particularly of my chest. What he saw was a dark spot that he deemed not of concern right now. But, what about that dark spot in my lungs. And at what point will it be something to be concerned about. Only one time in my life did I have an issue with my lungs. I was working at Shell Refinery Martinez California. And it was because of being exposed to H2S. I was not able to perform my regular duties for about 3 months after the incident/accident while I went to the local Medical Center the company sent me to for therapy treatments. The doctor said that I was very affected by the incident and my lungs were damaged. I would need therapy for months to recover if I recovered. That incident took alot out of me. It was difficult to breath for months. More than 10 years later I still have nightmares that I could have died from the incident. Why, because the man responsible for being my watch down below where the fresh air bottles were had left his post. He left his post to sell his health products to his friends. (What makes this so horrible is that Shell management knew what he was doing and never chastized him for it nor said for him not to. Like giving thier approval) So, when things went wrong he was gone, not even close to the area. There I was needing help, trying to get his attention and he was gone. We were working at the Coker Unit and a section where I was working on the tower having the highest H2S content in the refinery. I was lucky. It only took the breath out of me, caused me to be disoriented. That is what I thought at the time. But, now after more than 10 years I realize that the impact was much more. I realized too that after the incident it changed how I looked at things, my confidence in my work as I felt afraid but did not realize it. That fear caused me to hesistate, to loose focus on my job at hand, to make mistakes because of that.
I will never forget that day. Although because of it I have had many lapses of memory. The job was to work on a Pressure Transmitter and the valve behind it did not close fully. I was in full gear (that shows the gravity of the danger of the job I was about to do), with a air line, full mask, 5 minute emergency pack. As I was working on the instrument the alarm went off and I disconnected after switching to emergency pack. I climbed down to let my foreman ( Craig Schoefield) know as he was the one that I was working with. Because I had used up the air in my 5 minute pack we went to get another. On top of that I told him that the mask was loose and I got a wiff. What I did not know and did not realize is that he attempted to refill the bottle instead of getting a new one. IT DID NOT REFILL AND IT WAS NOT DESIGNED TO REFILL ONSITE. Then we went back as he wanted me to complete the job. We got a new mask though. When we got there I climbed back up and proceeded to work on the pressure transmitter when the alarm went off and of all things the main air supply from the bottles below stopped. (I found out later that the valve had suddenly failed and closed off) I switched to the 5 minute pack and nothing. It failed. I had no air. So, then I quickly decided to climb down until I was clear to take the mask off. I don't remember how far I got but I do remember that at one point I remembered from the movie "The Karate Kid" and said to myself "Live or Die" and took the mask off. It smelled of rotten eggs. My breath was taken and I thought that I was going to black out. I felt dizzy and confused. I do not even remember how I got down. Craig got mad at me and insisted that I climb back up as now the valve was open still. I tried but couldn't breath. I did not have the strength to climb even one level. I don't think that I made it up the first level at all. Later and only because I kept complaining did Craig have someone else take me to the Medical Office of the refinery. Craid did not even care enough to be concerned. He kept insisting that I was okay. The nurse checked me out and then at some point I was sent to the Doctors Office that they used. In the meantime an investigation was done and it was found that my 5 minute emergency pack was empty. They are not designed to be refilled locally. It was empty when I went up. I was sent back up several levels above ground with no back up emergency air supply. Craig did not even verify that it had air. And to top it off the valve system that would allow me to switch from bottled air to emergency air failed. I did not even have air from the bottles below. Something that you never think about, it (H2S) not only cuts off oxgen to your lungs, it cuts oxgen off to your blood, your brain and so on. One thing is that during the investigation the company found out that Craig had left his post and was not near when the incident took place. I could have died and there was no one around. What if I needed emergency CPR or something. There was not even someone there to call for help. CRAIG LEFT ME. HE LEFT HIS POST AT A CRUCIAL TIME. AND WHAT BOTHERS ME MOST EVEN TO THIS DAY IS THAT SHELL REFINERY MANAGEMENT DID NOT CARE. THEY DID NOT DISCIPLINE CRAIG IN ANY WAY.
I filed a complaint with the local CAL OSHA office and they looked into it. They wanted to file criminal charges but Shell Refinery Management stood up for Craig. Eventually I had no confidence for my safety on this job so I quit. Little did I know that more than 10 years later I would still be having horrid nightmares and trouble with my lungs. Shell Refinery Management did not care. They still do not care. About 4 or 5 years ago WPC got the contract for Instrument Techs at Shell Refinery Martinez, California. They found out about the incident and fired Craig. Shell Refinery Management only hired Criag in house and promoted him. A slap in the face to me. Like saying to me "He did not care about your life and we don't either so we promoted him. Safety is not truly our concern, Safety records on paper is all that we care about. Not the real thing. If we can bury things deep where no one sees it so what."
I did not realize until after I retired that it was because of that incident, those nightmares, that fear of what next and how it affected my job performance. Little did I realize that was hidden in my mind and distracted me, caused me to loose faith in myfelf, caused me to have lapses where I was confused. It was good that I retired early because one day it could have been like a bomb going off. I could have made a grave mistake and it could have hurt a lot of people beside me. I could never have lived with that.
Safety and Shell Refinery are not a match. But, it is about those people in management who make the decisions, the people who look at workers as replaceable as just another number. But, that does not give Shell Refinery Marinez, California nor its parent company the right to my life, my health.
Do you think that they ever offered me any type of consolidation. Do you think that they offered to pay me anything for the hell that I went through and am still going through, not only while I worked for them but for the suffering I went through job after job wondering what was causing me to be confused. And do you think that they care that recently I could have been working on jobs paying more than $3000 a week, even several paying more than twice that. Because of the hell that I have gone through after that incident I was making mistakes that one of them at home caused me to err in judgement. That err caused an accident that now I cannot work. Yes, I blame Shell and their management. My life was fine before I worked at their refinery. Last year I could not take a job offered at $70 hr plus per diem and I hated Shell Refinery for it. I had horrible nightmares over it.
I want those that represent Shell Refinery to be aware that those involved are guilty of worse than any crime because they literally did not care one bit about what happened to me, about how my health and future would be impacted. For those of you reading this more than 10 years later you should know that after I left Shell Refinery I wrote a detailed letter including attaching a copy of the results from Cal OSHA's investigation that I was given. I sent a copy to each of these people: The owner of American Instruments responsible directly for the employment of Craig Schoefield. The shop Supervisor and Foreman in the Instrument Electric Department. The Manager over all the shops at Shell Refinery. The I and E Manager. The Refinery Manager. And the Manager of the Coker Unit to which I was assigned at the time. Not a single one of them responded. Because they did not care. Even when I almost lost my life and since a severe violation of Safety Policies of the Refinery occured.
To those who are in management for Shell Refinery, Martinez, California or elsewhere, anywhere, I am a person. I have a family. I have children (grown) and a grandchild. What your company took from me can never be replaced or repaid.
