A woman who suffers epileptic seizures at the sound of television host Mary Hart's voice said Monday she is suing a hospital for job discrimination.
Dianne Neale said Community Hospital of Schoharie County forced her to change jobs and then fired her after an incident during which she supposedly embarrassed the hospital while having a seizure.Neale said the new job involved more telephone work than her previous position and asserted that it made her more prone to seizures.
"I was an excellent employee of the hospital and was able to do my job very well," Neale said in a prepared statement she read at a news conference. "However, the hospital wanted to reassign me to a job where I would have to talk on the phone constantly. When I did have a seizure as a result of the stress and the voices on the phone, I was fired."
Albany lawyer Robert Ganz, who is representing the hospital in the case, said Neale resigned, and he disputed the claim that her condition caused the incident. "They will not be able to prove that Dianne Neale's condition caused her to use profanity," Ganz said. "I think any time you have an excessive amount of publicity, there's a question of motivation."