![]() ![]() While Perkins’ injuries were extreme, she was among dozens of employees of Tyson Foods, one of America’s largest meatpacking companies, who have been injured in ammonia leaks over the last decade, a CNN investigation found. “It damaged every dang part of me,” Perkins said of the ammonia. ![]() In the years since the 2016 accident, Perkins has undergone multiple throat surgeries and two cornea transplants, takes six kinds of eye drops, and suffers from chronic coughing fits that make it difficult to breathe, she said. She heard a paramedic refer to her as “DOA” – dead on arrival. When a colleague finally dragged her outside, Perkins had red chemical burns on her face and leg. ![]() As other workers fled, Perkins lost consciousness and was trapped inside the plant for about forty minutes while the gas ravaged her eyes, throat, and lungs. Then, she heard a single loud pop.Ī pipe weld in the plant had ruptured, filling the room with a white cloud of ammonia gas – a chemical used to refrigerate meat that can be deadly in high doses. Mimi Perkins’ job on the graveyard shift at a Tyson Foods poultry plant started like any other night: hosing down the blood, guts, and stray feathers left behind by hundreds of thousands of dead chickens. ![]()
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