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Cancer survivor settles with OnHealth.Com
Pact follows outpouring of support
Saturday, January 29, 2000
By CAROL SMITH
Jeanne Sather, a breast cancer survivor whose firing from OnHealth Network Co. in Seattle touched off an outpouring of outrage from readers around the country, has agreed to a settlement with the health Web site.
The company issued a one-sentence statement yesterday, saying: "The OnHealth Network Co. and Jeanne Sather have met and have resolved the situation to both the company's and Ms. Sather's satisfaction."
"Obviously, it's a sensitive issue," said Alyssa Schaier, New York spokeswoman for the company. "The company and Jeanne have decided not to discuss this any further."
She will not be returning to work at the company. Under terms of the agreement, she could not say anything about the settlement.
The company had originally offered her two months' severance pay when it dismissed her Jan. 11, but Sather turned down that offer.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for employees with short- or long-term disabilities.
Sather received more than 60 calls and e-mails from friends and well-wishers after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story about her struggle with cancer and her dismissal from the job. Many readers contacted OnHealth directly.
"People called me with the most incredible support," she said. "I was on the phone from 8:30 a.m. until I had to unplug it at 5 p.m."
The story also prompted job leads, including one from drkoop.com, one of OnHealth's primary rivals in the health Web site marketplace.
Seth Landau, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor, called Sather to discuss a job prospect at In4network, a company he founded in Seattle.
"I've been through this with my mother," he said. "I'd like to help."
Sather's story inflamed the breast cancer community.
"As a leader in the Seattle-area breast cancer community, I want to express my profound disappointment with your organization for your abrupt termination of Jeanne Sather," wrote Julie Davidson, founder of Women for Women's Health.
" ... This issue goes well beyond its impact on Ms. Sather personally and on the one in every eight women in our country who have been, or will be, diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Instead of being a beacon of hope and knowledge for us, you have become 'part of the problem.' I urge you to reconsider your position on this matter."
The story attracted national attention as well. MSNBC posted the story on its Web site. And NBC Nightly News contacted Sather about doing a story.
The P-I also received dozens of calls and e-mails in support of Sather, many of them offering assistance.
"It seems an online health company could not find it in its soul to support Ms. Sather's request for flexible working hours to permit her to deal with her illness," wrote Bob Sjoberg. "For my part, I am taking a stand. I will boycott OnHealth and will boycott its advertisers."
Dr. Nancy Phillips of St. Louis University Hospital was moved to contact OnHealth's advertisers.
"I notice that you advertise on onhealth.com," Phillips wrote. "This site, onhealth.com, has fired a breast cancer survivor, a Web journalist who helped propel that site to popularity with her features on her own experiences with breast cancer. ... I am a breast cancer care physician and researcher, and the developer of computer-based patient information services for the cancer care center at my university. I see no good reason to include onhealth.com, and by extension, your advertisements on the site. I do see some reason to put the Seattle Post-Intelligencer story information in the hands of fellow physicians and chemotherapy nurses associated with the university breast cancer center."
Many of those who responded to Sather's story had been touched by breast cancer in their own lives.
"How ironic to read your article an hour before I'm scheduled for a breast biopsy," said Jennifer Henning in Seattle. ". . . Her story touched me, and frightened me. . . . Her fight through surgery, radiation and chemotherapy has inspired many women -- including me. I wish Jeanne good health, long life and the right to work."
P-I reporter Carol Smith can be reached at 206-448-8070 or carolsmith@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
OnHealth.Com fired Sather as its promotions editor shortly after she finished her second round of chemotherapy, an ordeal she had chronicled for the company in a popular online journal that attracted a large number of hits to the Web site. Her dismissal came two working days after she submitted a recommendation from her physician that she be allowed to work flexible hours while recovering from the aftermath of chemotherapy.
Sather
Sather, 45, said yesterday the settlement was mutually agreeable.
See our original story:
Blindsided by disease and life, she fights to survive
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