STATter 911

Image above is from KTVI-TV. Click here to watch the story about Cindy Schuenke.

"You guys all had your arms around me in the hospital saying you'd take care of her". That's what Cindy Schuenke told the board of directors of the Community Fire Protection District in Overland, MO last night. It is the same group that fired the burned firefighter on July 2. No word on whether her appeal will change any minds.

If you are unaware of Cindy Schuenke's ordeal, click here to see the story Elizabeth Holland did for the St. Louis Dispatch last September. It talks about the battle back from burns that almost killed the firefighter. During the effort to save the mother of another firefighter trapped in a burning house, Schuenke fell through the floor with a basement fire burning below her. Fellow firefighters thought Schuenke was dead.

Here are excerpts from the St. Louis Dispatch report on Cindy Schuenke's appeal to get her job back:

The board members — Leo Morrow, Dan Doerr and Fran Costello — and board attorney Neil Bruntrager told reporters they could not comment on Schuenke's status after the meeting with Schuenke and her attorney, Michael Schaller.

Schaller, meanwhile, expressed outrage over the meeting and the reason for it: the board's decision in July to terminate Schuenke. That decision, Schaller said, was "far too premature." He said the directors didn't let him know Tuesday whether Schuenke's job status would change.

Community's board met with Schuenke and Schaller due to a grievance against the board alleging that the directors had failed to give Schuenke a hearing, as district policy requires, before terminating her in July.

Schuenke learned she'd been fired in a letter from fire district Chief Fred Cain. "Given the nature and extent of your injuries, it is clear that you are unable to perform the duties required in that position," the letter said.

Schuenke was fired despite a June 11 letter from her surgeon, Dr. Michael Smock, in which he wrote that Schuenke hadn't reached a plateau in her recovery and that he believed it would take another year or more for her to reach a point of "maximum medical improvement."

"I cannot rule out the possibility of Ms. Schuenke returning to work as a firefighter/paramedic," Smock wrote.

Schaller said that while worker's comp will continue to cover medical costs for injuries Schuenke suffered in the fire, the termination leaves her without coverage for other medical issues. It also strips her of $50,000 in annual salary and pension and other benefits, he said.

"Here's somebody who risked her life to try to save the mother of a fire captain in this district and now, two years later, when all the smoke and dust has cleared, they're going to cut her loose and make her live off Social Security disability, and that's just not fair," Schaller said.

In tears after the meeting, Schuenke said her career wasn't over. "This is what I've always wanted to do with my life," she said. "I'm not done yet."

# posted by Dave Statter @ 1:05 AM