Darran Somner was forced to sell his prized V8 and boat to feed his family after the Accident Compensation Corporation stopped his weekly compensation.
The Whangarei man is still upset at the harm it caused his family after ACC was ruled to have been wrong to refuse treatment and in cutting his entitlements.
Mr Somner encountered a raft of problems- a run-in with ACC, long injury layoff, and financial struggles - after injuring his knee at work in October last year and requiringsurgery.
He was preparing to spray paint a steel cage weighing about 200kg when it fell and caught his right knee. After undergoing physiotherapy which did not help, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Lyndon Bradley submitted a request in November to ACC to fund Mr Somner's knee surgery.
The government entity was provided with reports of Mr Somner's previous injury in the same knee suffered in 2015 in Tauranga but he said that had never troubled him.
ACC's medical adviser, Dr Paul Noonan, said there was evidence of prior knee symptoms and that the complex nature of the tear indicated it was "very unlikely" to be caused by one particular incident.
Dr Bradley disputed the other doctor's assessment, saying it was wrong to suggest the injured knee with excellent cartilage cover had an arthritic appearance.
In January, ACC informed Mr Somner it would not fund his knee surgery and would stop his weekly compensation because medical information showed his injury was due to a pre-existing condition. He went on the public waiting list and was operated on in June at the Whangarei Hospital.
But Mr Somner's advocate, Jeannette Brock, lodged an application for a review of ACC's decision and won.
Reviewer Karen Taylor said in her decision, after reviewing the evidence, that she was satisfied Mr Somner's knee injury was suffered at work in October.
She ordered ACC to resume weekly compensation, backdated to when it was stopped in January, and awarded $2053 in costs.
His family survived on a benefit from Work and Income which was insufficient and now Mr Somner fears a career change is inevitable as the nature of his injury means he would not be able to carry weight and climb up ladders.
"I was forced to sell my V8, my boat to pay $360 rent and bills. My children were also affected because I was not able to do things we used to do like going to the beach, walking around the town loop. I feel I keep letting them down.
"I never chose to go on a benefit. ACC forced me into this predicament," said the father of three.
Ms Brock said if ACC had continued to pay him and fund the operation, he would have been back at work by now.
"He lost his job, his rental, and relied on Winz payments. It has not only affected him emotionally, but he has put on a huge amount of weight, and physically it is going to take him longer to recover now," she said.