Thank God for the Nurses

I love nurses.  I have loved nurses for many years.  This past week, I went to the party of some of my former nurse clients.  They were celebrating the day of their unceremonious firing and subsequent successful lawsuit.  It was wonderful seeing them after several years.  I love those nurses.  Nurses are special.

When my grandfather died, my grandmother decided to pursue her life long dream, to be a nurse.  She enrolled in nursing school at the age of 63.  She had retired from her job as a factory worker sewing on sleeves on women's coats and had planned to travel the world with my grandfather.  Their first trip after Oma, my grandmother, retired was to Israel.  Israel was the destination in the late 1960s of all European Jews who had emigrated from Europe around the time of World War II.  My grandmother had taken her family (including my mother) and fled Nazi Germany in 1938.  She first worked as a housekeeper after she arrived in Kansas City, and worked her way up to the Betty Rose coat factory, where she joined the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union and took the bus every day to the factory to sew on coat sleeves until she retired around 1967.  Oma and Uncle Sam (my step-grandfather) had planned for many years to go to Israel.  Uncle Sam bought a beautiful smoky topaz ring for Oma while in Israel.  I am wearing it on my finger as I type this blog.

My grandparents' retirement plans were not to be.  Upon returning from Israel, Uncle Sam went to his doctor because he was feeling weak and tired.  He had lung cancer.  By November 1968, he was dead.  And my grandmother decided to go to nursing school.  While Oma never really recovered from my grandfather's death, the one redeeming thing in her life was that she was a nurse.  Through all of the years in the factory, she had always wanted to be a nurse and, by the end of her life, she made her dream come true.  In so many ways, my grandmother was my hero.  In her unassuming way, she was the risk taker in the family.

This leads me to what I want to write about and that is the profession of nursing.  Through the last few years as a trial lawyer, I have represented many nurses.  I have kept nurses on many juries.  I have the greatest respect for the profession of nursing.  People who decide to go into the nursing profession by and large do so because they care about helping people.  Nurses are smart, work hard, are sometimes unappreciated and don't get the respect that doctors receive.  When you go to a hospital, you spend much more time with nurses than with doctors.  Nurses take care of you.  Nurses are the mothers and fathers of the health care profession.

I have represented nurses who were sexually harassed in horrible ways by the doctors they worked for and I have represented nurses who spoke out against dangerous medical conditions in health care facilities and were fired.  In a whistleblower case against a not-for-profit case, it was the nurses on the jury who spoke out against the illegal conduct of the employer.  Qualities necessary to make a good nurse include the willingness and ability to question authority and the drive to seek perfection.  Some may call this latter trait obsessive compulsive disorder, but as far as I am concerned, give me an OCD nurse any day of the week.

My daughter has been struggling with migraines and who is it that gives her the care she needs to function?  The doctors help, but the CARE is provided for by the nurses.  Nurses don't seek recognition or glamour, they just do their job with intelligence and caring in 12 hour shifts.

Here's to the nurses!  Especially the ones who speak up so that we are all safer.  Thank goodness the nurses who were my clients had the courage they have to make this world a better place.  Thank God for nurses.

Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers are an interesting breed. True whistleblowers are courageous, they speak the truth even though it is not in their self-interest to do so. Whistleblowers are not followers, they buck the system. Whistleblowers are not merely satisfied with the status quo, to just get by. True whistleblowers are hard to come by.

We are social animals by nature. We want to get along, be liked, not rock the boat. Whistleblowers act in ways that are unnatural, they take risks and know that they will not just be going with the crowd. It takes a lot of courage to be a true whistleblower.

Whistleblowers are not "snitches." "Snitches" have ulterior motives such as lower jail terms, monetary gain, etc. to accuse another of something he or she may or may not have done. "Snitches" are not altruists, they are in it for themselves. I represent whistleblowers, not snitches.

I am going to tell the stories of some brave whistleblowers whom I have represented. I am changing their names and also those of the employers, but their stories are true. The courageous whistleblowers whom I have represented are:

1. Kurtis* the scientist, who reported shipping irregularities of radioactive materials at the research reactor (yes, that is a nuclear reactor) at which he worked. Incorrect and erroneous shipping and labeling of radioactive materials can have obvious serious consequences, including illness and death. Kurtis should have been hailed as a hero, but instead he was labeled a troublemaker and demoted in his job. Kurtis' whistleblower case was tried before the Department of Labor under the Energy Reorganization Act. I will tell Kurtis' story.

2. Shirlena* and Marley*, were two office workers in a not for profit company. The purpose of the company was to serve physicians in such endeavors such as lobbying for tort reform, promoting continuing education, etc. Both employees discovered the long-term executive director engaged in financial irregularities. Both Shirlena and Marley reported these irregularities to the physician board members. Shirlena was fired. After Shirlena left, Marley discovered pornography on the executive director's computer and reported it to the physician board members. She was forced out of her position. A colleague from the Trial Lawyers College, Rafe Foreman, and I, tried Marley's case to a jury verdict. We began trial in Shirlena's case, but the case was settled in the middle of trial. I will tell Shirlena and Marley's stories.

3. Mary* was happy to get a job with a major pharmaceutical company as a salesperson for a new drug that was in the process of approval by the FDA. Until the drug was approved, she was ostensibly told to sell another drug. However, her boss told Mary and her co-workers to go ahead and start marketing the un-approved drug, which was anticipated to be very costly and was projected to help increase revenue since a major drug had just gone generic. Unfortunately, it is unlawful to market an unapproved drug for reasons that were shown in this case. The drug here was found to potentially be dangerous and got a "black box" warning. Throughout the time Mary's boss told her to market the drug, Mary complained. Mary was ultimately fired. I will share Mary's story.

4. A group of ten nurses and other health care providers were employed in a local hospital in the emergency department. There were serious problems in the emergency department with understaffing and insufficient and outdated equipment. Patients suffered and the health care workers complained. Most were fired, a few were forced to quit, and one was transferred. I will share the story of these courageous workers.

*Denotes not their real names.

Courageous Clients

What I plan to do is profile several courageous clients. In the next following weeks, I intend to talk about whistleblowers, sexual harassment, racial, disability, and age discrimination victims who fought back. Sometimes as a lawyer it is easy to forget the emotional toll fighting the system is for a client. Without the courage of these special people, and others like them, harassment and discrimination would still be rampant in workplaces and American society in general.

I am excited about telling my clients' stories because I am so proud to have represented them. These stories are true stories of courage. The most gratifying part of my job as a plaintiffs' lawyer is to catch a glimpse of the joy and pride my clients must have experienced before they were victims of discrimination and/or retaliation.

Sometimes we here that someone files a discrimination case and, in essence, it is a trip to the bank. That is just not true. It takes a special person to fight back. I am so honored to represent them.

In the next few days and weeks I intend to write about my clients, people such as Kurt, a scientist, who bucked the system by refusing to violate federal laws in transporting radioactive substantives and the retaliation he suffered in lack of promotions and pay when he complained. I will write about my clients who reported to the not for profit board of physicians in charge of their employee that the executive director was stealing from the company, resulting in the termination of the whistleblowers. I will be recounting the tale of my client, the pharmaceutical representative, who complained about her employer forcing her to market a drug which had not yet been approved by the FDA and her subsequent termination.

I will also be telling the stories of numerous sexual harassment victims, with differing degrees of indignities inflicted upon them who had the wherewithal to fight back. Generally, women are not plagued by sexually inappropriate bosses as in the past because of the courage of people like the ones I represented.

I hope you will find these stories interesting. They are fascinating to me, and it has been gratifying to represent such courageous people. We can change the world even if it is just one case at a time.