Doctor’s Assistant Tells Boss She Has Cancer, Doctor Fires Her Because He’s ‘Humanitarian’

A woman in Texas, Carol Jumper, was unfortunately diagnosed in August with cancer in her pancreas, liver, and ovaries. But when she told her boss, George Visnich, the oral surgeon who employed the 51-year-old woman for the past 12 years, about her fight for life, his reaction was not what she expected.

He fired her.

In fact, he fired the cancer patient by mail, sending her a handwritten note a week later.

“You are currently engaged in a battle against cancer that will be demanding physically, mentally, and emotionally,” the Hopewell Township, Pennsylvania, oral surgeon wrote. “You will not be able to function in my office at the level required while battling for your life. Because of this, I am laying you off without pay as of August 11, 2014.”

Visnich didn’t even bother giving his assistant of more than a decade a phone call, said her fiancée, Dennis Semerigan.

But Visnich did add, thoughtfully, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you as you fight this horrible disease.”

How could anyone be so callous and unfeeling? Well, Visnich says he’s not. Actually, after the letter created a groundswell of social media outrage, the doctor had his lawyer explain why he did it.

Turns out that Visnich was only trying to do “the humanitarian thing.”

UPDATE: After his letter to Carol Jumper went viral, George Visnich fought back — or at least someone operating a Facebook page titled “George Visnich Oral Surgery” took up the fight. Statements on the page blasted Jumper’s supporters, and as its mission statement, declared, “It is an American right to let employees go at will.”

“Employees are paid to work. An employee fighting cancer isn’t able to give the 100% she is paid for,” wrote the person operating the page.

The “George Visnich Oral Surgery” even posted a message on the “Bumper’s Buddies,” Facebook page, which had been set up to support the woman laid off for having cancer.

“This is for all of you bleeding hearts,” the message read. “Go on and send her some of your own money.”

According to lawyer Larry Kelly, Visnich wrote the letter so that Jumper would be eligible to collect unemployment benefits while she continued to battle her cancer. Unemployment benefits average $300 per week, and because the U.S. Congress has refused to renew extended unemployment benefits, they expire after 26 weeks in most states.

So if Jumper isn’t cured of her cancer in six months, she’s really out of luck.

Kelly said he found the online hostility directed toward Visnich “troubling,” calling it, “Very disappointing, in that he’s trying to help this woman and he’s made out to be a villain.”

In some respects, Kelly may have a point. In many other countries, the United Kingdom for example, employees forced to leave work due to cancer or any other illness are entitled to sick pay, their full salary, for a certain period of time, possibly up to six months.

Also, of course, most European countries such as the U.K. have a national health care plan that prevents patients from incurring severe financial burdens due to sickness.

In Jumper’s case, she would have lost her health insurance entirely — if Visnich provided her any through her employment.

Fortunately, Jumper obtained insurance through the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Jumper, for her part, told a local newspaper she is uncomfortable with the attention she has received for being fired while she undergoes treatment for cancer.

[Image: Facebook]