ALS Robs Kankakee Firefighter Of His Dream Job

(CBS) – A former Kankakee firefighter with ALS was months away from collecting disability when the city said he couldn't return to work.

CBS 2's Sandra Torres explains his hardest battle yet.

When 33-year-old Derek Hogg was diagnosed with ALS, he thought it wouldn't end his firefighting career. But it did.

ALS took away his dream job, his strength and his independence.

He was about to hit seven years with the Kankakee Fire Department when the disease forced him to give it up. Hogg says that seven-year mark was so important because he could have met the terms of a disability pension for him and his family equal to 65 percent of his pay.

"Most fire departments would bend over backwards to help their own, but this one wouldn't, and I still don't know why," Hogg's wife, Holly, says.

Now, he's a father of three, with a new baby girl just born two weeks ago. The bills keep piling on.

"It just hit us like a ton of bricks," Hogg says. "Once they told me at Kankakee you are done I was like, 'What do I do now?'"

A year later, instead of focusing on what could have been, he is focusing on what's important: his children.

"It's getting kind of challenging just to use a walker," he says. "We are currently looking into getting a wheelchair van to help me get up and be a part of the kids' lives."

Hogg's wife set up a Gofundme page to help cover the family's costs.

The Kankakee Fire Department could not be reached for comment.