Printed From Acorn-Online.com
School bus driver, fired for minor mishaps, had
brain tumors
Dec 15, 2005
Marlene Buturla, the longtime Ridgefield school bus driver
dismissed last month after three minor accidents, has undergone
surgery to remove a brain tumor.
|
| A fund has been set up to
help with Marlene Buturla's medical
expenses. |
A friend and
fellow bus driver, Ali Zipparo, is starting a fund to accept
charitable donations to benefit Ms. Buturla, who will probably lose
her health coverage since she was fired. Ms. Buturla�s husband,
Steven, works as a tiler, but has no medical insurance.
�The
Ridgefield Bank is going to set up a fund as soon as possible,� Ms.
Zipparo said this week.
People interested in donating should
contact Ann S. DeJesu at the Ridgefield Bank (431-7503), she
said.
�That fund is there. If anyone has any other ideas for fund
raising, they can contact Krysta Hamilton at 431-3856,� Ms. Zipparo
said.
Ms. Hamilton was among the mothers whose children � riders
of Ms. Buturla�s bus to Farmingville Elementary School � staged a
protest at the Ridgefield school bus depot after the Baumann
Brothers bus company let her go.
�She�s been a driver for 23
years; I figured the community had strong feelings for her,� Ms.
Zipparo said.
Ms. Buturla�s daughter, Malissa Laedke, said that
her mother had been talking about �tingling in her fingers� for a
few months. �And she was complaining of headaches,� said Ms.
Laedke.
�My mom wasn�t a complainer,� she said, �but last Tuesday
when I came home from work, Mom was having trouble talking. So I
rushed her to Danbury Hospital, where they did a CAT scan and MRI.
And the doctor said they�d found two masses, one in her lung and
another in her brain. The one in her brain was the size of a plum
and the one in her lung was the size of an apple.�
Further
examination revealed three smaller tumors in her brain, deemed
inoperable.
�They removed the larger brain tumor on Saturday,�
said Ms. Laedke, �and she is speaking a lot better. But she�s had a
spinal leakage now, and is in a lot of pain. Now she needs radiation
and chemotherapy. The doctor said without chemo, she has six months
to live; with it, a year.
�But these things are never exact,�
said Ms. Laedke, one of three children of Ms. Buturla, who tuned 50
in October.
�She�s a wonderful woman,� said Ms. Zipparo, who
drives bus route number four for Farmingville. �She loved her job
and the kids she drove more than anything.�
Supporters
In the story
about the children�s protest in the Nov. 23 edition of The
Ridgefield Press, Ms. Hamilton said students and parents supported
Ms. Buturla because she�d done an important job well.
�She was
the best. We love Marlene because we know our kids are going to be
safe on her bus,� she said.
There is concern among her supporters
� and family � that she is facing the medical crisis without
adequate insurance.
�Had she taken a medical leave, she�d be
okay,� said Ms. Zipparo.
They said that the bus company and union
appeared to be trying to do something to help her, though they
weren�t sure the effort would work out.
At Baumann and Sons, the
bus company, spokesman Scott Cross said he could not comment on
medical insurance issues. The union representative, Sharon Scott,
could not be reached at press time.
�I realize that they can�t
talk about this publicly, now,� said Steve Buturla.
Ms. Laedke
said, �I understand that her insurance runs out Dec. 18, this
Sunday. After that I don�t know what we�ll do.�
�But I know she
is loved in this town,� said Mr. Buturla.
�
Copyright by Hersam Acorn newspapers