For 13 years, Lisa White was a steady presence in the emergency department at NYU Langone Health’s hospital in Brooklyn. A charge nurse with a doctorate of nursing practice, she spent the past three decades caring for the people of the New York tri-state area. But last fall, just weeks after undergoing hip replacement surgery and beginning disability leave, White once again found herself on the other side of the hospital bed. She started to develop pains in her lower back, which quickly made their way down to her legs. It was bone cancer.
White was diagnosed with a rare and fast-spreading cancer called sarcomatoid carcinoma in November. She had urgent spinal surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan and underwent radiation treatments for four days before officially beginning chemotherapy at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center on Dec. 18. That month, a nurse manager at NYU Langone sent an email to White requesting medical documentation regarding her ability to return to work. The manager informed her that, because of the medical center’s six-month limit on disability leave, the accommodation would end in February.
The following week, one of White’s doctors responded. He disclosed her condition and said that post-treatment recovery would likely take three to six months, urging NYU Langone to grant her “every consideration” and extend her medical leave so she could undergo treatment. NYU Langone did not respond to the letter…