Texas Nurses Fired for Alleging Misconduct Settle Their Suit
The New York Times—August 11th, 2010
Two nurses agreed Tuesday to split a $750,000 payment from Winkler County, Tex., to settle the lawsuit they filed after being fired and criminally prosecuted for reporting allegations of improper medical treatment by a doctor at the county hospital, their lawyer said.
One of the nurses, Anne Mitchell, was acquitted in February of misuse of official information, a felony, for anonymously reporting Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr. to the state medical board in 2009. Charges against the second nurse, Vickilyn Galle, were dropped shortly before the trial.
Experts on whistle-blower protection laws said the prosecution seemed unprecedented, and the nurses’ cause was taken up by state and national nursing associations that warned of a chilling effect on the reporting of medical misconduct.
Ms. Mitchell, 53, said in an interview that she was glad to put the case behind her. “We’ll be able to move on with our lives,” she said. “We never thought we’d be in this situation at this stage, when we should be settling down and looking toward retirement.”
Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Galle, both of whom live in Jal, N.M., have not been able to find work in the field since their dismissals as nursing administrators last year, said Brian Carney, one of their lawyers.
Read More: The New York Times
