When Karen Magnussen walked into work at the North Shore Winter Club on Nov. 28, 2011, she had no idea it would be the day that changed her life.
At around 6 a.m. on that fateful day a cloud of ammonia gas that had leaked from the club's refrigeration plant engulfed Magnussen, seriously injuring her eyes, ears and respiratory system. Two years later, Magnussen continues to battle with her health but also the news that she will never work in a rink again.
"I went into work thinking I'd have a fulfilling day and carry on, then I end up like this and nobody wants to own up to it," said Magnussen. "It's been a very long journey for me the past two years and no empathy from the club in any regard."
An incident report by the BC Safety Authority from the day of the accident states that not only was a failing condenser pump controller to blame for the leak, but "operator error due to lack of training and knowledge also contributed." Inspections by the authority in the months that followed reiterated the need for safety training and emergency procedures, including a note on Jan. 18, 2012 that five of the nine operators had received emergency response training and complete operator emergency response training was immediately required.
Magnussen apologizes over the phone to the North Shore News for her shortness of breath. The ammonia burned her vocal cords and lungs and for the first seven to eight months after the accident, she was coughing nonstop.
"It was just horrific coughing," she said. "You think every bone in your body's going to break."
She is on various medications, the worst of which, she said, is prednisone, a type of corticosteroid that comes with a slew of side effects including weight gain and increased blood pressure. But prednisone has been the only one that has helped her stop coughing.
"It's very difficult," said Magnussen. "And then you finally are able to take something that stops the coughing but they don't know if I get off it enough if I'm going to start the coughing again. It's sort of a catch 22 and of course you can't do anything because you're just trying to breathe."
She will have respiratory airwave dysfunction for the rest of her life and doctors are still unsure if her condition will change.
"They don't know how I'm going to be in 10 years or 15 years or what," she said. "Is it going to become worse or is it going to stay where it is, because everyone's bodies are different, everyone's reactions to things are different, so it's an unknown."
Magnussen said the North Shore Winter Club continues to dispute her injuries.
"It's very sad that people can operate like that, that they can ruin someone's life totally, their life, their livelihood- how I interact with my family and what I can do and can't do now that I used to," she said. "I was a productive person in society, that's all gone, that's all been taken away from me."
WorkSafeBC has classified her as permanently disabled, putting an end to her career in coaching.
"I can never go back into a rink again, so what do I do, I've done this since I was seven years old," she said. "My whole life has been very sports specific, my teaching, and I'm 61. What could I possibly re-learn and do? I can't even function all day long at any kind of a quality."
Magnussen said going from functioning at a high level for 10 hours a day to her current condition is not where she saw herself at 61.
"I could keep teaching until I was in my 80s and 90s," she said. "I have many peers that are teaching at 92, there's no arbitrary age that you have to retire in skating as a coach."
Magnussen's other battle is with WorkSafeBC over compensation. She has yet to hear what she will receive, if anything.
"I never was paid by the North Shore Winter Club, so really I'm an independent contractor but as far as WorkSafe is concerned I was an employee," said Magnussen. "You can't do anything, you have no recourse. For the first time in my life, I'm at the mercy of somebody else, that's very hard to take."
Magnussen had been coaching figure skating for more than 25 years and before that she had a decorated career as an amateur athlete. She won four Canadian championships starting in 1970 and received a bronze medal that same year in her first world championship. She took home the silver medal at the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan and another silver in Calgary at the world championships. In 1973, Magnussen's final year as an amateur competitor, she became the third Canadian woman to take home gold at the world's.
She went on to skate professionally with the Ice Capades until 1977 and after she retired, Magnussen moved to Boston to coach young skaters and continued when she returned to North Vancouver in 1987.
Magnussen said she's lost more than 200 students as a result of the accident.
"They all had to find another place and the North Shore Winter Club abolished all the figure skating and took it over as a hockey facility," she said. "So all those children either quit or were able to funnel into other rinks."
The program Magnussen ran was very successful and according to her, brought in a lot of money for the club.
"They were there because of myself and the coaches that I had at the time at the North Shore Winter Club and the way that we treated everyone as important young people. We really had a wonderful thing going," she said. "It was a very successful program and growing."
Magnussen is for the most part housebound, though her husband takes her out shopping and mall walking, but she said even that has its concerns.
"I could be affected by chemicals or whatever they spray or use in different facilities so I'm really at the mercy of whatever's in the air."
One bright light is the numerous well wishes that she's received, for which Magnussen is thankful.
"The outpouring of support that I've received from all over the world, from North Vancouver to Italy, it's just been absolutely amazing," she said. "And the U.S., from my peers from Ice Capades and all those years that I skated with them, its really been very heartwarming, but still a long journey left."
