Father says race affects patient care, hospital obliges

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She studied the books, learned the medicine and spent 25 years of her life gaining experience in her chosen career path and devoting attention and care to her patients. In fact, the Midwest hospital in which she lived thought her care was of such quality that they continuously employed her as a nurse for that entire term of years in the neonatal intensive care unit, taking care of delicate infant children.

That was why she was surprised when she was recently pulled off the case of an infant. The reason was one she thought she wouldn’t have to confront. Not only was the woman a nurse, but she was an African American nurse — and that was the reason she was pulled from the baby’s care. The father of the child has shown a supervisor his Swastika tattoo and asked that the woman no longer care for his child. The worst part was that the hospital obliged in the racial discrimination.

Not only was she taken off of the case, but when she returned to the hospital the next day, it was made clear that no African American nurses were to tend to the baby. In fact, there was a specific notation in the chart that instructed the staff as to the issue. The father was eventually allegedly notified that the hospital would no longer fulfill the request, but for an entire month no African American nurses were put on the infant patient’s care.

It wouldn’t be a shock to many of our readers to learn that the woman was “shocked, offended and in disbelief that she was so egregiously discriminated against based on her race and reassigned.” That was what she said in the legal complaint filed with the court based on a claim of racial discrimination in the workplace.

Source: International Business Times, “African-American Nurse Sues Michigan Hospital For Racial Discrimination, Father Requests She Not Care For His Baby,” Feb. 15, 2013

If you have been discriminated in a New Jersey workplace on the basis of racial identity, our law firm is ready to help.