Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The New Coffee Room. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Hey! I'm on disability, you know!; or, "What a country!
Topic Started: Aug 7 2008, 04:32 AM (151 Views)
George K
Member Avatar
Finally
Bodybuilding Firefighter Defies Order to Return to Work.

A Boston firefighter who competed as a bodybuilder while on disability leave did not show up for work this morning despite being ordered back on the job by the fire commissioner.

Posted Image
Albert Arroyo

Firefighter Albert Arroyo had been told to report for work as a fire inspector at 7 a.m. at the municipal building at 1010 Massachusetts Avenue. Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. warned Arroyo that if he did not return to work he could face termination.
"He has not communicated at all with the department," said a Fire Department spokesman, Steve MacDonald, who spoke to reporters outside the municipal building. "The commissioner has assigned the personnel chief to begin investigating why he did not show."

Arroyo, a firefighter since 1986, is assigned to the department's Fire Prevention Division, where he is responsible for inspecting homes and businesses to ensure that they comply with city fire codes. He filed for a disability pension in April after Dr. John F. Mahoney concluded that he was "totally and permanently" disabled from a back injury. On May 3, just 15 days after the doctor decided Arroyo could no longer work, the firefighter competed in a national bodybuilding competition and finished eighth.

On May 21, Fraser, citing the bodybuilding, asked the Boston Retirement Board to reject the application. The board, in turn, wrote Mahoney to ask if he stood by his diagnosis. Mahoney, without answering that question, responded on June 23 that he did not know Arroyo was a bodybuilder. The Fire Department quickly shifted Arroyo from injured leave at full pay and tax-free, to sick leave. Last Thursday, Fraser ordered Arroyo to show up today for his job as a fire inspector.

Mahoney, a neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital, defended his diagnosis in a story published today in the Globe, saying he did not know Arroyo was a bodybuilder. Arroyo paid 13 visits to Mahoney, including five examinations in the 13 months before the doctor concluded in April that Arroyo was "totally and permanently" disabled from a back injury.

Although Mahoney said Arroyo doffed his shirt during appointments, the neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital insisted he never noticed Arroyo's muscular physique until he saw Arroyo's photo in the Globe a week ago.

"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?" said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.

Mahoney said he noticed nothing amiss when he examined Arroyo, who looked to him like any patient who has "lost some weight and was working hard on his physical therapy and being fit."

He added: "When I saw that picture in the paper, I didn't recognize him as the man who came to my office."

Mahoney's assertion that he had no idea Arroyo was a bodybuilder prompted a sharp rebuke yesterday from Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-supported watchdog agency.

"Dr. Mahoney's statement that he did not notice Mr. Arroyo's bodybuilding physique with his shirt off is not believable," Tyler said. Such a "go along" attitude by Mahoney and others, Tyler, added, "contributes to abuse of the disability retirement system, and those abuses are costing taxpayers millions of dollars."
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
QuirtEvans
Member Avatar
I Owe It All To John D'Oh
The best line was when they ordered him back to work. His job, after all, is inspections, not firefighting. Something like: "If he can lift weights, he can carry a clipboard."
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mikhailoh
Member Avatar
If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
This is pretty flagrant abuse. Time for a trip to the prosecutor's office.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank_W
Member Avatar
Resident Misanthrope
Yep. And time for him to be b&hammered from his job. What an idiot.
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
JBryan
Member Avatar
I am the grey one
Quote:
 
"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?" said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.


Who is it exactly that should be on disability?
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Frank_W
Member Avatar
Resident Misanthrope
:lol2: :lol2:
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ivorythumper
Member Avatar
I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
JBryan
Aug 7 2008, 06:03 AM
Quote:
 
"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?" said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.


Who is it exactly that should be on disability?

I dunno, maybe the posing photo was photoshopped?

The dogma lives loudly within me.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
QuirtEvans
Member Avatar
I Owe It All To John D'Oh
ivorythumper
Aug 7 2008, 12:49 PM
JBryan
Aug 7 2008, 06:03 AM
Quote:
 
"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?" said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.


Who is it exactly that should be on disability?

I dunno, maybe the posing photo was photoshopped?

Quote:
 
He filed for a disability pension in April after Dr. John F. Mahoney concluded that he was "totally and permanently" disabled from a back injury. On May 3, just 15 days after the doctor decided Arroyo could no longer work, the firefighter competed in a national bodybuilding competition and finished eighth.


Maybe the whole bodybuilding competition was Photoshopped. Was it held in Area 51?
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Fully Featured & Customizable Free Forums
Learn More · Sign-up for Free
« Previous Topic · The New Coffee Room · Next Topic »
Add Reply