Op-Ed: Her Dad Made 694 Videos for Her Before Suicide

In one sense, it's a standard op-ed: Brittany Wagner argues in the New York Times that America's worker safety net is failing the people it's supposed to protect. What's unique is that Wagner's piece, with accompanying video, is based on 694 secret video diaries her father recorded before taking his own life in 2018. He was a construction worker who survived a 35-foot fall on the job, then spent nearly 18 years living with chronic pain, mounting financial strain, and a maze of workers' comp, disability, and health care bureaucracy.

"I kind of want this story to be told about how it is for a worker that gets hurt," Michael Wagner says in one video, in which he addresses his two daughters. "I did my job and this company screwed me. My lawyers screwed me. My doctors screwed me. My government screwed me." Brittany details how her father's workers' comp claim in Ohio was challenged, stretched out, and ultimately resolved in a $15,000 lump-sum settlement that denied the company's responsibility for his lifelong pain. And after a years-long fight for disability payments, he finally began receiving a modest $1,500 a month. Read the full essay.