How a Career was Lost to Celiac Disease
Our site is undergoing changes. Please keep checking our site. We are committed to keeping Keith’s vision alive. Our non profit organization will be officially launching in the next few months, and we are going to need your help to make it successful. We are determined to help individuals who have been adversely affected by Celiac/gluten intolerance because of a non diagnosis. Thank you for your support.
Website and organization run by “Friends of Keith” established in January 2012 by physicians, professionals, friends and family for Keith
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Please let me know what I can do to help.
We are just starting our campaign and would appreciate any help you could offer.
We are starting facebook and twitter pages. Please spread the word to friends and family. Thank You!
Would a letter writing campaign to ***** help?
Yes. The public has a very strong voice, and throughout our history has accomplished wonderful things to help people. Believe and get people involved and we can make a difference!
there are many other airlines, has he applied?
It’s not that simple and extremely difficult in lieu of the situation **** placed him in. Keith’s struggle is not just about himself, but correcting a terrible situation and preventing it from repeating and destroying another career/ life. Please read Keith’s vision for the future.
Fortunately, the job I lost wasn’t the career I loved. I was diagnosed with Celiac about 3 months after I was demoted from my supervisory position. After I learned more about this disease, I realized why I had been demoted: no ability to concentrate, complete apathy towards completing work, not to mention fatigue. I’m happy to report that the demotion was the kick I needed to go back to school and start on my dream career. All my best to Keith. It’s worth going after what you love.
Thank You Daisy. We are extremely pleased to hear that you are doing well. If anyone can relate to Keith’s experience, you can. Flying at ***** is Keith’s dream, and his natural gift to fly allowed him to perform at the highest levels despite his undiagnosed Celiac. Keith should be commended, not disciplined for knowing when he could not do his job at the highest level of performance and safety. We would truly appreciate your support.
Keith,
I am so glad that you finally have a diagnosis and more importantly, feel better. There are so many companies like the airline that you worked for, that unless they can “see a visual impairment” they assume that one does not exist. I also have an unseen illness that has caused me to stop working, never knowing how I am going to feel and also causing other
symptoms each day. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers as I know this affects not just the patient but the family too.
I hope to write a letter to ******** if this is the action that you want. Just email me and let me know how I can help or I can be in Royal Oak in approximately an hour or so. I’m happy to help with whatever is needed.
Thank you Dee! Keith is 100 percent and has no lingering side effects, best he has felt since high school. You can start by participating in our write in campaign. Our goal is to enlighten the person responsible for Keith’s termination with the hope that he will realize that Keith acted with the best interests of the people who entrusted their lives on his flights, and that the problems with Celiac diagnosis was beyond his control. In lieu of Keith’s situation we would like to encourage him to change Keith’s termination to a medical leave of absence. In this person’s own words “Keith was a model pilot” why would this person not allowed or offered Keith the time off without pay to focus on his health. The problem with Celiac is that Keith experienced different symptoms all the time, leading his employer to believe that his documentations were bogus. Again, our plan is to start with the write in campaign. We believe that we can achieve this goal, and make Keith a loud national voice for Celiac.
I lost my career to celiac disease, too. I was a chemist, and I’ve been sick since I was an infant. Things got worse and worse, although I put myself through college and some graduate school. When laboratory work became too difficult (and dangerous!), I tried to go back to school for something less dangerous, but couldn’t concentrate enough to finish a master’s thesis. Doctors told me it was all in my head, or given a diagnosis of fat (and therefore told to eat more whole wheat grains and exercise more!), so I relegated myself to a life of illness and a lost career. I’ve only been gluten-free six months (and I’m in my 30s) and have a lot more healing to do, but feel so much better that I’m optimistic I may be able to return to the laboratory in some capacity someday. I’ve wondered how many other folks have lost their careers due to this easily treatable illness. I try to raise awareness, but I feel like most folks, even those in the chronic illness communities online, are rolling their eyes at the thought of a diet change having such an impact on a person’s life. I don’t know how best to educate people (sick people, healthcare workers, ablebodied citizens who might one day have celiac themselves or love someone who falls ill with celiac), but I’d love to help you spread the word. Good luck, Keith. I bet you’re an even greater pilot without all that brain fog and fatigue now! If you can fly airplanes safely with celiac disease, I bet you could fly space shuttles with treated celiac disease!
Thank you for your support! We are in awe by all of the amazing personal stories we are hearing. Good luck in your continued healing process. And our strength will be in numbers. The more exposure that we get for Keith’s cause and for this very real disease in general, the better!
I bloody hate discrimination!
Thanks Fran. Make a difference join our voice against discrimination. Are goals are first to get Keith his job back and then become a loud nationwide voice. It is not right for someone to lose everything including their career because of a vastly misdiagnosed health issue, especially when that person is doing everything they possibly could. Please join our voice, we need you.
I just wanted to thank all the people supporting us, keep telling Keith’s story!
Hello, I am Keith’s Eucharistic Minister at the Shrine. I have been gluten free for over 10 years. I posted this site on my Facebook page and will do anything that I can to help Keith.
God Bless,
Shelby Rohr
Hi Shelby
Thank you for the kind words,and placing a link to Keith’s story on your facebook. Well the best thing we could all do is tell Keith’s story to as many people as possible and have them join our write in campaign. We are planning other events so please keep checking this site. We are not only committed to getting Keith his career back, but also to become a loud and powerful voice so that celiac will no longer destroy lives, careers and families. Thanks for your support!
I can absolutely identify with what you are going through! I think another avenue to pursue is the media. This would be a great story for the news to get hold of!! I think that would get Keiths boss to listen FAST AND it would also be helpful for the “cause” ie: help to educate the public about celiac’s and gluten sensitivity which we ALWAYS need more of!!
Kathie,
Thank you for your support! We are currently trying to get Keith’s story out to the media, and we are waiting for a response. As with everything else, we believe that strength is in numbers, so the more support we have (via the website, Facebook and Twitter), the more the media will take us seriously and understand that this is a very serious story that needs to be told!
This is ridiculous. I also have celiac disease and was once told as a passenger of an airline that I couldn’t bring my food on board and needed to check it because there wasn’t enough room for it. It was an international trip, and I would have been without food for over 14 hours. I refused and the flight attendant threatened to kick me off of my flight. She told me we could “talk about it on the jet bridge” if I liked. Finally someone with a brain and reason came by, but I always wonder what would have happened after I filed that law suit if they had kicked me off of the flight because I refused to be without my prescription of gluten free food! Not sure of you’ve tried this route, but celiac disease does fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I read an article about the federal school lunch program. You may want to contact the ACLU.
This is a shame but I’m not surprised the airlines seem to be clueless. Continental gave me a suspicious meal passed off as “gluten-free” on the way to Europe a few years back and I ignored my gut feeling (sorry for the pun) and was sick before we even touched down. The attendants had no care about what they did. I lost the whole first day of my trip sick over a spinning sink.
As a pilot, I know the double-standard used with the “IMSAFE” policy and I’ve had questions too when having to be out sick on a flight shift due to cross-contamination. They just don’t get it.
Is there address information to write a letter to *****?
You really need to be shedding the kind of light on this story that one of the network nightly news segments would give you. That is what you need, find someone who knows someone in that kind of media. You’ll get your career back for sure when it gets that kind of attention, unfortunately that’s what it takes.
It also took me 25 years, a few doctors fired, and taking control of my own health care to figure it out for myself.
Good luck, glad you got it figured out finally and although your career took the hit you do have your health back!
Dear Ellen,
Thank you for your support! I am so glad you have finally figured out your diagnosis, it is a long battle! If you click on the tab “Write in Campaign 2012″, there is a template letter and an address. Please feel free to send this on to your friends as well! Thank you!