Case Studies: Ann-Marie Kimball

Sam Clark    |    Jonathan Gorstein - Abstract    |    Jonathan Gorstein - Outline    |    Anne Marie Kimbal    |    Ann Kurth
Martina Morris    |    Beth Rivin    |    Bettina Shell-Duncan    |    Clarence Spigner    |    Joe Zunt    |    Combined

Oil rig worker in the Philippines

Abstract

Mario Nachor (fictitious) is a 40 year old father of five from the Philippines. He was raised in the countryside 60 km from Manila in a poor district. He pursued his education through high school, marrying his highschool girlfriend in a lavish Catholic ceremony. While they had hoped to defer a family, family planning was not an option in the Catholic family and community setting where he and his bride resided. Mario soon found himself struggling to support his family with manual labor jobs. Despite lots of looking, he was never fully employed, and funds for clothing, food and schooling were very tight. Mario did not want his wife to work, it was against his belief system. She had a full time job caring for the children. A cousin from Manila called him with an opportunity to go and work for an American Oil Company which was doing exploration in the empty quarter of the Saudi Peninsula. He leapt at the chance.

To qualify for a visa to travel he had a health examination certified for a fee by a local physician known to his family. No physical exam was done, and it was difficult for Mario to afford the price of a chest x-ray, but he managed. Three months later he was taken from the airport to the rig by truck with many other workers from the Philippines, Pakistan, India and China. His job was to assure the alignment of the large drill which required daily inspection and servicing of its complex gears. The drill operated 24 hours a day.

Mario lived in dormitory accommodations with forty other men. His bunk was adequate and he placed pictures of his wife and children prominently around his bed so he could remember why he had come so far to work. The pay was good, and he worked at the rig for 6 weeks of long shifts (14 to 18 hours) and then had two weeks off. Normally workers did not go home, but spend the two weeks in the capital in dormitory accommodations provided by the company. Most of the pay he sent back to his wife in Mindanao.

His second week of work he felt very fatigued. The work was hard and the temperature was very hot during the day time. He checked into the rig clinic to consult the nurse about a heavy feeling in his chest and numbness in his arm, but the nurse reassured him that workers often had to adjust to the conditions.

After dinner the following week he felt nauseous and had crushing chest pain. He was sweating and felt dizzy and short of breath. He collapsed on his way to see the nurse. He passed out. He awoke a day later in a strange hospital with IV tubes in his arms and a cardiac monitor. Mario was afraid and soon learned he had suffered a heart attack. Not to worry, he was assured, the company would pay his hospitalization costs.

Three days later, he was discharged with a prescription for nitroglycerin and instructions to follow up with his own physician. He was dismayed to learn that his passage to Mindinao was paid, but he would not be allowed to return to the rig to work, and was being discharged for medical reasons. He would receive no compensation other than what he would have received for his six week stint. Dejected, he returned to Mindanao to face unemployment once again.