Damage command not working?

[infection 1]

Hello, I'm trying to use the damage command like this

_health = damage player;
(I've tried this aswell)
_health = getdammage player;

but both of them return 0 even if I have broken legs.

[mikie boy 18]

works for me dude - tried it on the DB as well

[infection 1]

I use an handledamage event handler which uses sethit, cus the command works if I do setdamage manually. Does it not work with sethit?