Fired narcoleptic dispatcher files lawsuit

HILLSIDE, Ill., March 5 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area police dispatcher charges her police department wrongly fired her because she has narcolepsy, which can cause people to suddenly fall asleep.

Kenya Madden, 29, alleges in a federal lawsuit her Hillside (Ill.) Police Department supervisor asked her to resign and sent her home after Madden mentioned before her first shift working alone that she was narcoleptic, her lawyer Thomas Crooks, said.

A week later the department fired Madden, the lawsuit said.

Madden had told the supervisor about her condition because she "felt it was the honest thing to do," even though she went through 10 weeks of training without falling asleep, Crooks told the Chicago Tribune.

Madden can effectively control the disorder with medication, Crooks said.

Hillsdale Police Chief Joseph Lukaszek told the Tribune the village couldn't risk the possibility that Madden might fall asleep while taking an emergency call.

"It would put every police officer and every citizen in harm's way," he said.

Narcolepsy combines the Greek "narke," or numbness or stupor, and "lepsis," or attack or seizure.

Hillsdale, west of Chicago, is known for being the village where organized crime figures Al Capone and Dion O'Bannion are buried.