firefighters not allowed to work for ailing brother

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Fight continues for Kankakee firefighter with Lou Gehrig’s disease

Jan 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from a followup article by MyFoxChicago.com about Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg

A Kankakee firefighter with a fatal disease is getting new help in his battle against City Hall.

Derek Hogg, a firefighter diagnosed with ALS–Lou Gehrig’s disease, is about to be dumped from his job, just months short of qualifying for his pension.

Hogg said he and his wife holly have been swamped with letters, calls and emails after FOX 32 first reported last week on his fight to get his pension. “We had thousands of people respond, and come and say how can we help? We support you and we have your back,” said Hogg’s wife Holly.

Two years ago, the 31-year-old firefighter was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal illness. As Hogg’s condition worsened, he had to give up firefighting and was put on desk duty.

On February 19th, Hogg’s job and his FMLA will expire, just months short of his June 1st anniversary date. That’s the date Hogg would qualify for a disability pension of $3200 a month. It is money that would continue to be paid to his wife and two young children after he dies.

Hogg’s fellow firefighters volunteered to come to his rescue and work his shifts until June 1, but Kankakee mayor Nina Epstein shot that plan down saying it’s not allowed by pension law.

For 35 years, Wendy Abrams has run the Les Turner ALS Foundation in Chicago, which has raised tens of millions of dollars for research and helping patients with ALS.

After seeing FOX 32’s story, Abrams wrote a letter to the Kankakee mayor, asking her to reconsider her decision. “I figured she was the one who made the decision, so I should just tell her how I felt,” said Abrams.

“In my heart I know that you personally would like to help this family, but we need you now to step up, be creative and make it happen,” the letter read.

“Most employers want to help. They really don’t want to deny the people that have worked for them so long to make them comfortable in their time of need,” Abrams said.

The Les Turner ALS Foundation is planning a social media campaign to put heat on the mayor, and is also supplying the Hogg’s with a lawyer to explore whether Kankakee has followed the law.

On Wednesday, Mayor Epstein told FOX 32 News by phone that she’s received many “hateful responses” to her decision, but cannot change her mind. “I understand the emotion, but I do not understand how people are asking me to forget the legal basis for this decision…We have done everything possible to accommodate this man, short of granting him his pension,” she said.

Tags: firefighters not allowed to work for ailing brother, Kankakee Fire Department, Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg, Les Turner ALS Foundation in Chicago, Wendy Abrams

Kankakee firefighters help one of their own

Jan 8

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | 5 Comments

The following is from an article at myFoxChicago.com:

They put their lives on the line to save ours. However, one Kankakee firefighter battling a deadly disease said in his time of need, he’s getting no help at all from City Hall.

“Watching the parades when I was two or three, seeing the fire trucks go by, I’m like ‘I want to do that,'” said Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg … 31 [who] achieved that boyhood dream becoming a firefighter in 2008. But a couple years ago, his body began sending signals that something was wrong.

“May of 2012 I started getting muscle twitches. Didn’t think anything of it,” Hogg said. When it got worse, he saw a doctor and got a shocking diagnosis — ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease — a muscle wasting condition for which there is no cure. Doctors told him he had only three to five years to live, but Hogg chose to go back to work.

“I loved being a fireman, loved it. And so I went back to work after I got my diagnosis,” Hogg said.

And he needed the money for his growing family. Hogg and his wife holly have two very young sons.

In 2013, the disease had progressed to the point he could no longer be a firefighter, and Hogg was put on desk duty. But that disability duty has a time limit that will soon expire, which means Hogg would be out of a job. That’s when his fellow firefighters came to the rescue.

His colleagues volunteered to work Hogg’s shifts at the firehouse and donate their vacation time and sick days, so that he could stay on the payroll until June 1, which is a critical date. That marks Hogg’s seventh full year on the job and allows him to qualify for a disability pension of $3200 a month. It is money that would continue to go to his family after he dies.

“Thought it was a very simple idea. The city wouldn’t lose a dime,” Hogg said. “Just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, because with a young family at home I didn’t know what I was going to do,” said Hogg.

Hogg said after the firefighters union okayed the plan, he met with Kankakee mayor Nina Epstein, who told him she was fine with it as long as the lawyers signed off. A month later, Epstein left a voice message saying the city would not allow other firefighters to work on his behalf.

Epstein told FOX 32: “Sadly I cannot accommodate his request… This is a horrible situation, but I can’t look at things that way. I have to look out for the taxpayers… I have to follow the law.”

On Monday, Hogg, his family and a group of supporters went to the Kankakee City Council meeting to address the mayor directly.

“I ask that you not look at this decision as a politician but a human being. One with morals and compassion,” Hogg said. “I ask you mayor, will you let my brothers and sisters on the fire department help me?”

The mayor responded, “I will not continue to discuss it in a public forum… Nothing I can do to reverse that decision.”

This means Hogg will soon lose his job and any chance at the pension that would have helped his family.

“It’s a bad situation, and I feel like they have the opportunity to make it better for us. And they’re choosing not to help us. And I feel like our fate rests in the mayor’s hands,” Hogg’s wife Holly said. “And I don’t feel like she’s doing enough to help us.”

There is precedent — in Pittsburgh recently, firefighters worked the shift of a colleague also suffering from ALS. But the Kankakee mayor said she can’t bend the rules, telling FOX 32 ‘I have 300 employees. Do you think this will be the last horrible situation?'”