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Aug 14, 2023

SYMPTOMS INTERRUPTED WELDER’S LIFE

Sharon Davis had planned to work at Newport News Shipbuilding until she retired, but something went painfully wrong. After 12 years as a welder, she succumbed to carpal tunnel syndrome – a nerve

Sharon Davis had planned to work at Newport News Shipbuilding until she retired, but something went painfully wrong.

After 12 years as a welder, she succumbed to carpal tunnel syndrome – a nerve disorder caused by inflamed tendons in her wrist – and is unable to work at any job that requires extensive use of her hands, wrists and arms.

“I was in it until the end. I never thought I would work anyplace other than the shipyard,” she said.

Davis’ job required use of welding tools that vibrated and needed considerable hand strength to operate. Her work required that she make the same motions, like side to side or up and down sweeping motions, continuously. She also, at times, hauled 30-pound tool bags, equipment and cables up and down ship ladders.

Today, the 43-year-old Hampton resident is on worker’s compensation and planning for a new career as a medical laboratory technician. On doctor’s orders, she stopped welding in 1986 and was terminated from the yard later that year.

After her first night of welding school in 1974, Davis’ hands ached.

“My hands were so sore I couldn’t hold the steering wheel of the car. I had to use the palms of my hands on it,” she recalled.

Davis ignored the symptoms for seven years thinking they would go away.

“At first you really don’t think about it because a lot of things can cause your hands to go to sleep,” she said.

But eventually she went to a doctor who diagnosed her as having stressful hand syndrome. She was later rediagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome – in both hands.

“Gradually my hands would go numb. More and more and I would have trouble hanging onto things,” she said.

“I dropped things quite frequently and it had gotten to the point where my hands would be so numb that if my bedroom door was closed I couldn’t open it.”

Like many carpal tunnel sufferers, Davis’ treatment began conservatively. She wore wrist splints – but to no avail.

In 1983, she underwent the first in a series of nine surgeries but continued welding. Only after a relapse in 1986 did she stop welding permanently.

“At that point my doctor said, `Absolutely no more welding,'” she recalled.

After years of rehabilitative therapy and surgery, Davis’ hands and wrists still cause her problems.

“They’re never going to be back to what they were. But they’re better than what they were before,” she said. She said she still can’t grip objects for very long.

“My husband does not trust me to come at him with a glass of iced tea anymore,” Davis said.

Her problems don’t end there.

Although Davis stills receives free medical treatment for her work-related illness, she no longer has insurance to cover her and her family’s other medical needs.

The union contract under which Davis worked stipulated that after a 30-month absence from work, as a result of a work-related injury, an employee’s relationship with the shipyard, including health benefits, is severed.

“We’re one of those families that fall between the cracks,” she said.

Her wages as a medical laboratory technician won’t approach those of a welder.

Davis said she made nearly $13 an hour as a welder, while she expects to make about $8 as a laboratory technician.

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