(From left: Kiki Paris before her accident, and afterwards wearing a halo neckbrace and holding her separation papers from MSLO)

In May 2008, Kiki Paris, a senior director of national accounts at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Body + Soul magazine fractured her spine after being hit by a car. Paris underwent surgery to screw her fractured vertebrae together and was placed in a halo neckbrace for 12 weeks to immobilize her spine. According to Paris, her supervisors at Body + Soul pressured her to go off disability and begin working from home nine weeks after her accident. Less than a month after she returned to work, Body + Soul executives came to her house and laid her off. Now, Paris has filed a disability discrimination claim against her former employers with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and her case may be headed to court.

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Ambulance-chasing, PR-style:

From: [FLACK REDACTED]
To: dylan@mediabistro.com
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:11:09 -0400
Subject: Covering Phyllis Diller back injury — Want MD advice?

Hi-

Hope all is well. I wanted to check in to find out if you will be covering the latest news announcement regarding Phyllis Diller‘s back fracture? If so, I’d like to offer you the top orthopedic spine surgeon in New York at Mount Sinai Hospital, Sean McCance, MD, who can speak to the latest techniques for preventing and treating back fractures and injuries, long-term consequences and surgical indications and options. The inclusion of medical expert insight would be a great supplement to the reports!

Contact me to set up an interview with Dr. McCance.

I hope to hear from you.

Best,

[FLACK REDACTED]