A nurse at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital is accusing the hospital of wrongly firing her after she sent her coworkers an email claiming the masks the hospital provided did not sufficiently protect nurses and others at the hospital from COVID-19.
On March 23, Lauri Mazurkiewicz filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court against Northwestern Memorial, alleging the hospital retaliated against her for wearing a N95 “particulate respirator” mask and urging her colleagues to do the same.
Mazurkiewicz claimed she “was terminated for warning (her) coworkers and/or supervisors that the distributed and mandated facemasks were unsafe.”
Jeffrey Grossich
| Blake Horwitz Law Firm
The lawsuit comes as the hospital and others gear up for an anticipated surge of patients infected with the novel coronavirus that causes the condition known as COVID-19.
The lawsuit further illustrates the challenges facing nurses and other health care workers, dealing with the risk of infection themselves as they treat those suffering severe symptoms from the infection.
According to the complaint, Northwestern Memorial allegedly provided its nurses and staff with facemasks, but not N95 masks.
Further, the complaint said the hospital “mandated” hospital staff wear those masks, and not N95 masks.
Mazurkiewicz alleges the masks provided were not as effective at reducing the risk of COVID infection as N95 masks.
Mazurkiewicz said she owned some N95 masks, and intended to use her own masks when performing her duties at the hospital, including treating COVID-19 patients.
She said she also sent an email on March 18 to “employees, agents, and/or supervisors” asserting the N95 masks “are safer and more effective than the facemasks distributed and mandated” by Northwestern Memorial. The email further stated Mazurkiewicz “would be wearing” an N95 mask “to work at the hospital.”
The complaint said that email “exposed” Northwestern Memorial’s “malfeasance.”
She then wore her N95 mask to work on March 19, and was fired.
Mazurkiewicz said she is seeking damages of more than $50,000 for the hospital’s alleged decision to fire her for allegedly attempting “to disclose public corruption and/or wrongdoing.”
She is represented in the case by attorneys Jeffrey C. Grossich and Blake W. Horwitz, of the Blake Horwitz Law Firm, of Chicago.