Safety has always been important to Whitehorse resident Leon Meyn wherever he's worked.

At one point, he was awarded a $280 pair of safety boots for essentially saving a co-worker's life when he lived in Alberta. He noticed the driver didn't have the proper safety equipment and stopped the work that was about to be done with hydraulic acid.

In May 2000 though, when he was working at Kal-Tire in Whitehorse, where he was also the shop's 'defacto' safety supervisor, all the safety precautions he'd taken couldn't prevent a 90-kg (200-lb.) tractor tire from nearly tearing off his arm. The injury ended his career working in physical labour.

In an interview Tuesday morning, Meyn said the injury happened as he was fixing the tire when it rolled into a small soapy solution of Murphy's Soap and water that was on the floor. The tire slipped in the puddle of soap and fell onto his right arm.

'It pulled my shoulder right out of the socket,' he said.

Thinking his arm would be all right, he continued to work as best he could through the rest of the day.

The dull pain continued to worsen through the evening and by the next morning, he couldn't work. This began the process with the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board (WCB).

He went to Whitehorse General Hospital and was eventually sent to Calgary for a magnetic resonance image, which found torn tendons in his shoulder.

'I couldn't lift anything at all,' said Meyn.

Physical therapy didn't seem to have any effect. He was sent to see a sports medicine specialist in Vancouver, where he also underwent a CAT scan which showed frayed tendons. Everytime he'd lift his arm, his shoulder blade would pop out, he said.

'There was no stability in my shoulder blade.'

He finally opted to go ahead with an experimental surgery which involved a lyparoscopic procedure that saw first his shoulder, and later his shoulder blade, cleaned out of the frayed pieces of tendons.

The procedures involved about six to eight weeks' recovery each time, but he could finally lift his arm above his head. The surgery doctors normally would have likely only allowed him to lift his arm above his shoulder.

'I was thrilled with the amount of mobility,' Meyn said.

After more physical therapy though, it became evident he wouldn't be able to go back to a job in physical labour.

Becoming bored, Meyn went to the WCB to see if he'd be able to take a couple of classes at Yukon College.

'I was going nuts at home,' he said.

He was able to retrain and signed up for the college's business administration program.

'I wanted something (a school program) that was more broad,' he said of his choice of course.

It was thanks to the support around him, he said, that he ended up with mainly As and graduated as the 2004 valedictorian with both the business administration diploma and a certificate in tourism management.

In his final year of the business program, due to a scheduling issue, he had only one class to take in each semester so he opted to add the tourism courses to get that certificate as well.

While Meyn says he'd never take the five or six classes in a semester again, he graduated with a 3.8 grade point average in 2004.

He was also able to get casual work at the college throughout the summer months until he had worked his way up to so many hours that they would have had to offer him a position.

Finally, he was able to find administration work in the Yukon government's Executive Council Office, a role he especially enjoys because it enables him to deal with people.

Moving from working in physical labour to administrative work meant having to focus on different attributes, such as his ability to deal with people, and finding work that was best for him.

'I'm really customer service-driven,' he said.

As the WCB gets ready for Friday to mark this year's Day of Mourning, a day to remember workers who were injured or killed on the job, Meyn is hoping to get a message out to both employers and employees around the territory.

It's important that employers be compassionate when a staffer is injured on the job, said Meyn. Bosses shouldn't make their staff feel they just need to walk an injury off and get back to work, he added. Doing that can make the staff feel like their wimps.

Then if staff members are unable to continue work, there should be efforts made to find alternative duties for them until they're better, he suggested.

If the injury requires them to be at home, it's important to keep the workers involved even if it's just through a phone call once a week so they're not worried about losing their job.

'Just be compassionate to your workers,' he said.

Meyn also advised injured workers to make sure they have a good support network around them, especially if they end up going through the depression that can come from a feeling of uselessness if they're not working.

If the injured worker doesn't have the support of family or the boss, the WCB has access to support groups available.

'When your case worker asks you to do something, follow it exactly to the best of your ability,' he said, noting that if there is a problem, the worker can take the issue to the worker advocate.

Workers should also take a proactive approach and phone the WCB with any information they might be looking for, he said.

The Star is publishing several articles this week on Yukon victims of workplace accidents and their families during the lead-up to Friday's Day of Mourning ceremonies, set for 12:30 p.m. at the main Yukon government administration building.