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.
White and her sister, Joanna White-Oldham — who had power of attorney for White — received an email from the long-term disability company New York Life Insurance soon after, requesting confirmation of her condition in order to approve White for long-term disability leave, which would include monthly income benefits. The company approved her leave on March 13. The next week, NYU Langone terminated her.
“The termination came as a total shock to me,” White said in an interview with WSN. “At that point, someone got the communication that I was approved for long-term, so I didn’t feel I had anything to worry about.”
White passed away on Monday, June 30 while receiving hospice care. She was 50.
On March 21, White became one of several employees at NYU Langone in recent years suddenly fired after receiving a major medical diagnosis — and one of many others, including patients, who claimed to have been gravely mistreated by the medical center.
NYU Langone said it could not comment on this story.
‘Overwhelming depression’
In an interview with WSN prior to White’s passing, White-Oldham said the termination letter “doesn’t give any reasons why” her sister was terminated. She said she immediately called NYU Langone and was given a case number.
“In that call, I’m asking them, ‘How is it that they’re doing this? Why are they doing this? You just approved her for long-term disability. What is going on? This is insane,’” White-Oldham said.
In the letter, obtained by WSN, NYU Langone’s human resources department said White’s health insurance benefits would end on the last day of March. The department also told her that she would receive notice of her right to continue her group health benefits under COBRA, a federal law that allows outgoing employees to keep their employer coverage. During this time, White was preparing for hospital admission to undergo treatment.
A few days after NYU Langone sent the termination letter, White-Oldham got on a phone call with Jose LaBarca III, the HR director at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital. LaBarca had allegedly explained to White-Oldham that her sister could “reapply for her job” and said that “we know she’s a stellar employee.”
“I cut him off,” White-Oldham said. “I tell him that that was not acceptable — that they just terminate an employee who’s been so dedicated to them in the middle of her treatment without having contacted her prior to advise her of anything or any deadlines that were looming.”
On the phone call, LaBarca had allegedly said he “can’t be responsible for her not getting treatment,” but that the medical center “can probably extend her benefits” and reinstate her through at least August. LaBarca had instructed White-Oldham to text him her email address so that he could send a disability accommodation form for her and her sister to fill out in order to continue receiving NYU Langone’s employment benefits. White-Oldham said LaBarca also requested that she send him an official power of attorney document.
White, who spoke to WSN weeks before her passing, said losing her job while simultaneously undergoing cancer treatment, in addition to financial hurdles, led to “overwhelming depression.”
“I don’t want to do much as far as my personal care, personal hygiene, personal mental health,” White said. “It’s been affecting me in a very negative way. You try to work out of it — you try to tell yourself, ‘You gotta come past this.’ Everyone knows that increased stress affects any type of healing. I try my best to work through it.”
Earlier this year, one of White’s close friends set up a GoFundMe page titled, “Stand with Lisa White in Her Cancer Journey.” The fundraiser has since garnered over $21,000 from 233 donations out of a goal of $100,000. As of April 12, White’s hospital bill was $34,000.
‘He never answers me’
White-Oldham texted LaBarca her email address on March 24 but received no response, according to text message receipts obtained by WSN. The next day, she sent the power of attorney document and still received no response. After finding the disability accommodation form through one of her sister’s colleagues, White-Oldham emailed LaBarca on March 27, attaching the completed form alongside a signed and notarized power of attorney document.
White was admitted to the hospital on March 31. On April 4, her sister — who said she had called and left messages on LaBarca’s voicemail — sent a follow-up email asking for an update, calling the lack of communication “extremely upsetting and disappointing.” LaBarca never responded to those messages.
“He never answers me,” White-Oldham said. “They pretty much left a person who is fighting cancer without any benefits or any means to get any by saying they would do this reinstatement.”
White said her 13 years of experience at NYU Langone gave her no reason to believe that “this type of treatment would occur.” She told WSN that the nursing team at the medical center is “usually very open” and “was more understanding” than the administration following her termination.
“My boss and my immediate supervisor were very understanding,” White said. “They also couldn’t understand what was actually going on, because they didn’t receive any type of communication either — they didn’t receive the same communication that I received. As far as me being terminated, they were in shock when they found out.”
‘Delayed communication’
By the end of May, White-Oldham said her sister’s condition had “gotten progressively worse.”
WSN requested comment from LaBarca and an NYU Langone spokesperson on June 1. The next day, LaBarca emailed White-Oldham, apologizing for “the delayed communication” and asking whether her sister could return to work on July 27. He said that if she is unable to return on that date but can return later, the medical center “will make every effort to accommodate her in an available open position.” He also sent White-Oldham a physical letter to her home address.
LaBarca did not respond to requests for comment.
That day, another employee at NYU Langone sent White-Oldham an email, which was obtained by WSN. The employee said they were “truly sorry” for what White-Oldham and her sister “are going through at this time,” and attached a document outlining the benefits White was eligible for, including retiree health insurance. The retiree benefits would cost around $750 per month and “remain in effect” until White became Medicare eligible.
The employee said that NYU Langone would credit White’s account for April and May, and that she would have received an invoice for June. The email also stipulated that White could have continued NYU Langone’s dental and vision plans through COBRA.
“What makes it even more disgusting, in my view, is that her condition was disclosed to them,” White-Oldham said. “They know that she has cancer, they know the status of how bad the cancer is and what the situation is, and yet they terminated her without any further contact or anything. And what makes it even worse is that they approved her long-term disability and then they terminated her.”
White-Oldham said she contacted Rissmiller PLLC, an employment law firm, to pursue legal action against NYU Langone on April 11. In a May 30 email obtained by WSN, the firm’s founder Alex Rissmiller — who has represented plaintiffs in similar cases against NYU Langone — turned down the case due to issues he said were “outside” his “area of expertise,” and referred her and her sister to the California-based National Employment Lawyers Association. White-Oldham had since been searching for an attorney to represent her sister in court.
Rissmiller did not respond to requests for comment.
‘A documented pattern’
In the last three years, WSN has covered several instances of alleged disability discrimination at NYU Langone. More than a dozen former employees and patients have sued the medical center after either facing termination for requesting disability accommodations or being denied such consideration under its care.
A former employee sued NYU Langone in April for disability and racial discrimination, alleging violations of the ADA and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The plaintiff, Antoinette Grant, was a labor and delivery nurse for over 30 years and had been at NYU Langone since 2018, according to the complaint. In August 2021, Grant underwent knee replacement surgery and began long-term disability leave due to complications. The next year, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Grant initially applied for short-term disability leave before deciding to continue work remotely. In April 2023, NYU Langone allegedly denied Grant’s accommodation request and mandated that she return to work in person in June of that year — which she did. In July 2023, after working at the medical center while undergoing cancer treatment, Grant’s weakened immune system led her to develop finger infections and she had to get her nails removed. In August, she began short-term disability leave and underwent surgery in September. For the next few months, Grant had additional surgeries and started new cancer treatments.
In December 2023, Grant had hoped to return to work at the start of the new year. However, Carri-Anne Gaglione — a nurse manager at NYU Langone — “immediately questioned” Grant regarding whether her leave had ended and “whether she should even be at the hospital,” according to the complaint. Gaglione and HR director Austin Bender sent an email to Grant on Jan. 5, 2024 allegedly “prohibiting” her from returning to work.
After weeks of back-and-forth communication between Grant, Gaglione and Bender regarding Grant’s ability to return to work, NYU Langone terminated her on Feb. 16, 2024.
Grant said she thinks the termination was partially due to her membership with the NYU Langone Health Black Mothers Matter Committee, a group of labor and delivery nurses who work to address racial disparities in health outcomes. In her complaint, she alleges that NYU Langone subjected her to “adverse employment actions” — including the refusal to provide reasonable accommodations — because of her race and her work with BMMC.
An attorney for Grant did not respond to requests for comment and NYU Langone has not yet responded to the complaint.
In January 2023, physician assistant Sophiana Cilus — who had undergone hip reconstruction surgery two years prior — sued NYU Langone after she was terminated for requesting to extend an accommodation that shortened her maximum shift length. Cilus is accusing NYU Langone of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. Rissmiller, who is representing Cilus, had told WSN that an administrator requested Cilus return to her regular working schedule three months earlier than they initially agreed. The case is ongoing.
Rissmiller is also representing Marijeanne Liederbach, another former employee who sued for disability discrimination. In February 2024, Liederbach — who worked at NYU Langone for nearly 30 years — alleged she was “abruptly terminated” after asking for time off due to a breast cancer diagnosis. Liederbach claimed her termination caused her to lose her health benefits just 12 days ahead of breast cancer surgery. Her case is also ongoing.
In June 2023, a former patient sued NYU Langone after it allegedly failed to provide her an American Sign Language interpreter before and during the delivery of her child. The patient, Aneta Brodski, and her husband, Chris Besecker, requested an ASL interpreter during Brodski’s transfer to NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital — but none were present upon arrival. The medical center claims it provided a sign language interpreter during the three days her child was under its care. However, the interpreter was only present for four hours, according to the pending lawsuit.
The medical center is facing numerous other claims of employee mistreatment. In 2021, a former employee at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine sued the school and NYU Langone CEO Robert Grossman for gender discrimination, claiming the university paid her less than her male peers and threatened to fire employees who brought concerns to the press. The case was dismissed in May 2024, according to court documents obtained by WSN.
“People have to know that this is much bigger than just one person — that there is a pattern, a documented pattern, and we have to collectively try to stop them,” White-Oldham said. “It’s just disingenuous. It’s the fact that they cover up their behavior with lies.”
Title I of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities, specifically outlaws employment discrimination “against qualified individuals with disabilities” by private employers like NYU Langone, as well as state and local governments or employment agencies. Protected employment practices include pay, termination, benefits and leave.
NYU Langone’s Non-Discrimination Policy states that the medical center does not “exclude from participation, deny benefits to or engage in discrimination against any person employed or seeking employment” based on race, sex or disability, among other protections. In the equal opportunity subheading in its Code of Conduct, NYU Langone states that it is committed to “a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every respect of its relations with its faculty, students and staff members” without regard to a slew of protections, including disability.
“This includes, but is not limited to, recruitment, hiring or appointment, selection for training, transfer, layoff, promotion, granting of tenure, rates of pay and other forms of compensation, benefits and participation in educational, social, and recreational programs sponsored by NYU Langone Health and all other terms and conditions of employment,” the document reads.
‘We want justice for everyone’
When White began chemotherapy in December, she also started documenting her cancer journey on Instagram. Her final video update was shared on Jan. 21.
“This cancer diagnosis came as a complete shock,” White said in a video posted the day she began cancer treatment. “I was fully active working in August — running up and down the ER, doing my 20 jobs.”
White-Oldham said she was “shocked and disappointed” to learn that NYU Langone seems to make “a practice of treating people this way,” adding that “they cover it up well.” She said she used to work in NYU Langone’s IT department, and left voluntarily because of a “culture that hides beneath the surface.”
She added that there was “hierarchy and favoritism” during her time at the medical center, but that she never saw “this level of complete disregard” for an employee.
White-Oldham said that she and her sister “want justice for everyone,” and that everyone who has “been mistreated by these people” deserves to be heard.
“If we’re going to fight these people, we have to do it for everybody,” White-Oldham said. “That’s what my sister would want. That’s what I want.”
If you have any tips, or have a similar story to share, please contact Yezen Saadah at [email protected] or reach WSN Features at [email protected].