Claudia Rendon of Pennsylvania has had a tough year. First, her mother and uncle died, then her father was diagnosed with leukemia. As if that wasn’t enough, she later discovered her son, Alex, was in need of a kidney transplant.

Doctors found she was a suitable donor match, so Rendon took time off work to give Alex the kidney he needed. But when she tried to return to her job several weeks later, she found she’d been fired.

It seems Rendon had used all her vacation time to be with her dying mother, and because her employer, Aviation Institute Of Maintenance, has fewer than 50 employees, it isn’t bound by the federal Family Medical Leave Act guaranteeing an employee’s job will be held for 12 weeks in the case of a family medical emergency.

When the Philadelphia FOX news affiliate went to Rendon’s former workplace to ask about the situation, her ex-boss said, “I have no comment and I’ll have ask you to leave.”

A rep for the company, which teaches would-be mechanics how to fix planes, later said letting Rendon go was perfectly legal.

More From Cat Country 102.9