Eileen O’Brien Casey ’81 made a name for herself at Saint Michael’s for her tenaciousness and spirit. Now that spirit is helping to rebuild her life — and the lives of others.
By Buff Lindau

Everybody knew Eileen O’Brien Casey ’81 (also known as “Bean”) when she was a student. How could they not? She was selling them lift tickets to Stowe, Smugglers’ Notch and Sugarbush, to cover her own skiing costs. She was Vice President of the Student Association for two years, organizing socials and service work. When not skiing, or hiking, she was heading with friends to the lake when it warmed up enough for a day at the beach. She was a political science major and had work-study jobs in the library, the public relations office, the student activities office. She waited on tables at the Sheraton on weekends. She was everywhere.

As totally involved and visible as Casey was in her college life, she continued with the same fervor after graduation with in her work and family life. She was a well known account executive for WCAX-TV from 1983 to1991, leaving the workforce shortly before the birth of her third child. In 1992, she published a book, Maternity Leave: The Working Woman’s Practical Guide to Combining Pregnancy, Motherhood & Career. She returned to work at WCAX in March of 2006.

But seven months later, in October 2006, Casey was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer. As a 48-year-old woman, she had what is typically a children’s disease, likely the result of an overdose of radiation to treat plantar warts when she was 10 years old. She was told would need surgery immediately to save her life, and the surgery would amputate her right leg just below the knee.

And so a world of struggle, faith, support, hospitalization, surgery and chemotherapy was thrust upon her and upon her family. Casey, now divorced, is the single parent of three children, Patrick and Colleen, who are in college, and Andy, age 16, a student at Rice High School in Burlington.

“I really don’t know what I would have done without Andy’s help,” she said. During her course of chemotherapy, from November 2006 to September 2007, she was hospitalized for two weeks every month, had outpatient treatments for a week, and during her ‘good’ fourth week of the month, often had to have blood transfusions. Andy had to get himself to school, take care of the dog and cat, do the shopping and be there for his mother. Scores of others also helped her from the time of surgery, through the year of chemo and the fitting of the prosthetic limb, to today when she has taken back her life and has even hit the ski slopes and the running trails once again.

“I was in shock for a long time,” she said of her ordeal. She explained some of the complications of the process, saying she still had phantom pain where her foot should be, but she emphasized the positive. “I’ve always been a survivor.”

Still this was a test beyond what anyone could prepare for. Chemo slowed the healing of her leg and affected the fitting and refitting of the prosthesis. Her prosthetic ankle doesn’t bend yet, although that will come in a later version of the prosthesis. During gait training therapy, the stiff ankle caused her to fall and break her wrist on her first trip down stairs. Then her insurance ran out for the physical therapy, although her employer, WCAX-TV, had financed a quarter of a million dollars for her medical care thus far. Casey had used her insurance plan’s limit ($10,000) for the prosthesis.

Through good fortune and endless enquiries, Casey came upon assistance from a Saint Michael’s graduate, Mark Ciociola ’79, regional manager for Vermont Vocational Rehabilitation. Ciociola found enough money in the agency’s year-end budget to finance an $18,000 grant to pay for her new prosthetic leg. And that inspired Casey to work on making such funding available to others in Vermont.

Ever the fighter, she testified in the Vermont House and Senate to get legislation passed that would bring every state in New England into the Prosthetic Parity Law. (Vermont and Connecticut were not included). Passed unanimously and signed into law by the governor in April, the law requires insurance companies to treat the costs of a prosthesis and follow-up care like any other reconstructive surgery. Ironically, the law doesn’t help Casey because it excludes self-insured companies, like WCAX. Now Casey is working on a Federal Law HR5615 to fix this problem.

Her quest has received wide media attention. The Associated Press reported in April that Casey had contacted Senator Bernie Sanders who had agreed to introduce federal parity legislation. The AP reported that Sanders’ said, “I strongly support this legislation, which should be passed at the federal level as well. Health care decisions should be made by doctors and their patients, not insurance company bureaucrats.” She spoke with Senator Patrick Leahy ’61 at Mass in the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel in June and felt encouraged that he wanted to help move the legislation forward.

On June 9, an AP story on the MSNBC Web site led with Casey’s situation, describing her as having “joined a nationwide fight by amputees and the prosthetics industry to get the states and Congress to require fuller coverage for artificial limbs. The insurance industry is fighting the effort, saying such mandates drive up costs and reduce the flexibility customers want.”

“I want something good to come out of this tragedy,” she said.

One ironic piece of good fortune has come to Casey because of the Iraq War. She has gotten a series of prostheses that are more sophisticated, and more finely tuned and suited to her lifestyle, than she would have had it not been for the rapid advances made in prosthetic limbs developed for soldiers injured in the war.

Casey said again and again that the best news for her was the constant support she felt from her Saint Michael’s family. Edmundite fathers, Very Rev. Mike Cronogue, Rev. Ray Doherty ’51, Rev. Steve Hornat ’72 and Rev. Brian Cummings ’86 all visited and prayed with her. Her college roommate, Ellen Meister Davin ’81 provided “huge support,” staying with her through the amputation surgery in Boston. Another college roommate, Tina Madkour ’81, a teacher in South Burlington and herself a cancer survivor, “was there for me throughout,” Casey said.

“The gifts I received going through this—the outpouring of love and support—I never realized how many people cared about me,” she said. “I don’t know how people who don’t have a strong faith get through something like this,” she said. “I got that foundation of faith as a student at Saint Michael’s and that got me through—it’s the truth,” she said. “Going to church at St. Mike’s remains the highlight of my week.”

With that support, she’s “trying to reclaim” her life: she’s skiing again with a special boot for her right leg. “I’m thrilled to be back on the slopes—it’s incredible to be up there and cruising down. . . . when I’m skiing I’m like normal.” And she’s returning to running—a former passion. She had been “addicted to running” as a place to find peace, to meditate, to have time to herself and to run with her border collie. She and health professionals are working to get her properly fitted, step by step, over time, so she can fully return to her former active life.

Her immediate reward was to celebrate her son Patrick’s 21st birthday, skiing with him out West in April. “My kids were my motivation through the whole thing,” said Casey.