For more than a year, med­ical or­der­ly Na­tal­ie Hors­ford has limped in­to work with a walk­ing stick, her body wracked with pain and her spir­it worn by dis­ap­point­ment.

But yes­ter­day, the moth­er of one fi­nal­ly broke down in tears af­ter re­ceiv­ing as­sur­ances from Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe that her long-ig­nored in­jury leave and ben­e­fits would at last be ad­dressed.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Hors­ford said she has worked at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al and Teach­ing Hos­pi­tal for 18 years but got in­jured in 2024 in­side a mal­func­tion­ing el­e­va­tor. This has left her bat­tling not on­ly with phys­i­cal agony but al­so with fi­nan­cial hard­ship.