Too Sick To Quit

September 2, 2002

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Too Sick To Quit

September 1, 2002

By HILARY WALDMAN, Courant Staff Writer

Bertha Hanscom says she is too sick to work and too sick to quit.

Hanscom, 60, says she was healthy until 1996, when she started getting

bronchitis three or four times a year.

Looking back, she says, the coughing and flu-like symptoms began one year

after her unit of the tax department moved to 25 Sigourney St.

The symptoms got worse with every bout, and by November 2000 Hanscom spent a

week in the hospital. Doctors pumped her with high doses of steroids, but

her lungs were slow to clear.

When she was a little better, Hanscom's doctor referred her to the

occupational medicine center at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

But for anybody to be sure that Hanscom's illness was building-related, she

would have to act as a coal mine canary.

" They put me back in, and if I got sick again, they would know, " says

Hanscom, who has been home on workers' compensation since March.

Within three days of returning to Sigourney Street, Hanscom's voice was

thready, as though there was not enough air passing through her voice box to

produce sound.

She would leave the office sick on a Friday and return better on Monday.

Tests at UConn confirmed that Hanscom's breathing capacity deteriorated

after a week in the building.

She has been diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a chronic lung

disease linked to mold-contaminated indoor air.

Now, her lungs are so sensitive that even the slightest amount of indoor

mold can make her chest tight. She's had trouble breathing in certain

restaurants and more recently in her doctor's office.

Hanscom says she enjoys her job mailing out tax documents, and feels trapped

by her illness. Her husband's income is not enough to cover the expenses of

the family, which includes two grandchildren the couple is raising in their

Bristol home.

She also needs the health insurance that comes with her state job.

" I could quit my job, but then what happens down the road with these lungs? "

Hanscom asked. " I didn't do this to my lungs. "

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