AUSTIN, TX — The Austin Firefighters Association is rallying behind a lieutenant who was denied workers’ compensation despite battling terminal cancer.
Suzanne LaFollette, a 19-year veteran of the Austin Fire Department, was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian and endometrial cancer in May 2025, but the city of Austin denied her workers’ compensation claim. According to her attorney, the city’s reasoning for the denial was because“the disease is considered an ordinary disease of life, and there is insufficient evidence connecting it to her employment with the city of Austin.”