Would-be cop sues over medical ban: Denied job as officer force because of insulin pump
 By Jessica Fargen
Boston Herald Health & Medical Reporter
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

State officials plan to take a “hard look” at whether it still makes sense to screen out police candidates if they use an insulin pump, after a 22-year-old diabetic filed a discrimination complaint because he was barred from becoming a cop.

“When I was denied, I was speechless. This is something I really want. I’ll do anything I have to do to become a police officer,” said Gregory Hennick of Gloucester, who was denied a job as a Northampton police officer solely because he uses an insulin pump to manage his Type I diabetes.
He filed a complaint Friday with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Hennick’s attorney, Tim Burke. “There’s no correlation between the pump and his ability to do the job.”

Paul Dietl, personnel administrator of the Division of Human Resources, said he plans to find out whether 2002 state regulations that prohibit new police hires with insulin pumps need to be reviewed. Firefighters are not subject to the same rule.

“The last thing we want to do is have inappropriate standards that keep people away from a job,” he said.
Dr. Howard Wolpert, director of the insulin pump program at Joslin Diabetes Center, said technology has changed. Pumps the size of bricks were the norm in the 1970s, but these days most are the size of a pager. The newer pumps allow diabetics to deliver insulin with much more precision than with injections.
Hennick’s pager-sized pump fits in his pocket and is attached to a thin, clear tube, which is inserted into his stomach via an opening kept covered with a gauze patch. He pulls the tubing in and out with ease and said he could go a day with it dislodged without problem. Hennick, who passed an exam and a background check, said the next police academy for Northampton cadets is in two years. Meanwhile, the 200-pound, 6-foot-1-inch-tall college senior is spending his summer on the Cape, working as a seasonal police officer, as he did last summer.
Stan Eichner, director of the Boston Disability Law Center, said insulin pump discrimination is not unheard of. Two years ago, a young girl was barred from summer camp because of a pump.“Our view was that they really weren’t looking into it in an individualized way,” Eichner said, who reached a settlement with the camp.