Austin firefighter battling cancer, appealing denial of worker's comp claim

AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin firefighter, battling Stage 4 endometrial cancer, is pushing back after the city denied her worker's compensation claim. 

The state doesn't include female reproductive cancers in their firefighter cancer coverage, but it does include some male reproductive cancers.  

What they're saying:

Suzanne La Follette has been an Austin firefighter for 19 years. She was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in May 2025. Endometrial cancer is when cancer cells grow in the uterus. 

For about a year and a half, she kept having symptoms that resembled urinary tract infections. Eventually, after lots of appointments and scans, a tumor was found in her uterus. 

"This happened at the age of 45, so I thought a lot of the changes that were happening could simply have been explained away as being perimenopause, but instead it was a brutal cancer," La Follette said.

After severely bleeding, she had an emergency radical hysterectomy, which meant all of her reproductive organs were removed. The cancer has traveled through her lymph nodes and is considered terminal. 

"That does mean that it is probably what will kill me unless I get hit by a bus tomorrow," she said. "We don't know exactly how the timeline looks for that. They've told us the average woman with this cancer lives for two to three years after diagnosis. I'm coming up on one year here pretty soon, but I like to think that I'm not quite average."

She is going through chemo treatment. She says she has no genetic markers for this cancer and believes it was caused by her job. 

"It came from what I believe are exposures to carcinogens and a difficult shift life for the past 19 years, because we just don't see cancers that are this aggressive in people that are this healthy, this young. It's very rare to see that happen and for it to just be, as they call, a disease of life," she said.

"A disease of life" is why her worker's compensation claim was denied.

La Follette says without worker's compensation, once her sick leave runs out, she would have to retire. Worker's comp would let her stay on longer and perhaps take some light duty positions. 

"If I pass because of this disease, I really want my family to be covered as a line-of-duty death as they should be, so that my wife and my daughters would be taken care of," La Follette said.

Big picture view:

Texas firefighter cancer presumptive coverage includes cancers like prostate and testicular cancer, but not female reproductive ones. She says female reproductive cancers are covered at the federal level.

The other side:

The City of Austin released the following statement:

"We are proud to offer comprehensive health benefits that are cost-effective, sustainable, and contribute toward employee mental and physical health.  

Workers' Compensation has a separate scope and covers on the job injuries that are determined to be compensable under the Workers’ Compensation laws. Each Workers' Compensation claim is evaluated by the City's third-party administrator, which specializes in Workers' Compensation and applying Texas workers’ compensation laws and rules to each claim. The City takes all Workers' Compensation claims seriously and strives to ensure that all injured workers are treated so that they can return to work as quickly and safely as possible.   

Due to medical privacy laws, we cannot go into the specifics of any particular employee or their claims. If a determination is made on a Workers' Compensation claim that the employee disagrees with, a process is in place for the employee to challenge that decision and appeal to an independent party." 

What's next:

La Follette is appealing the claim denial and has a benefit review conference coming up on Thursday. 

"Hopefully the City of Austin will continue to be a leader of progressive change and approve mine as an example so that we can take that to the state and start making some changes at the state level," she said.