More hospital workers have filed legal complaints against the hospitals for which they work, claiming the hospitals were putting their workers at risk by either barring them from wearing masks while at work, or not supplying them with new masks, while the hospitals grapple with the COVID-19 outbreak.
On March 26, Regina Haglund, who had worked as an emergency room nurse at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.
In the complaint, which was filed by attorney David Fish, of Naperville, Haglund accuses the hospital of firing her in retaliation for raising concerns over the hospital’s alleged mask policies, which allegedly prevented nurses like her from obtaining new masks to protect themselves against COVID-19. Fish provided a copy of the NLRB complaint to the Cook County Record.
And on April 2, Marvell Moody, a security guard at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in suburban Hazel Crest, filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against the hospital.
Moody is represented by attorneys Blake Horwitz and Jeffrey Grossich, of the Blake Horwitz Law Firm, of Chicago.
In his lawsuit, Moody accused the hospital of retaliating against him by firing him for allegedly complaining to coworkers about the hospital’s alleged policy forbidding its security guards from wearing masks while on duty to protect themselves against COVID-19.
The complaints come days after Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago was sued by a nurse who claimed she had also been fired for complaining about that hospital’s alleged policies barring nurses from wearing N95 masks while at work, rather than the masks provided by the hospital. That nurse was also represented by the Blake Horwitz lawyers who are representing Moody in his action.
In the NLRB complaint - such complaints are often filed as a prelude to a lawsuit - Haglund asserted Mercy Hospital had masks on hand, but still required nurses in the hospital’s ER triage unit to reuse “thin paper masks” often for more than 4 days. The complaint asserted the masks are intended to be changed for each patient examination, which typically lasts 20 minutes.
Haglund “was extremely nervous about herself and her coworkers being exposed to COVID-19 and the impact it could have on herself, her co-workers, patients and her family,” the NLRB complaint said. “She was also concerned because she cared for her young son and also has an elderly mother with medical conditions.”
Haglund said she attempted to supplement the hospital-supplied mask with a cloth mask she had purchased on Amazon, but was ultimately fired for insubordination.
Spokespeople for Mercy Hospital did not reply to a request for comment from the Cook County Record.
In Moody’s lawsuit, the security guard asserted he “feared that he would contract COVID-19 and then spread the disease to his fiancée and her 13-year-old son,” as well as to his 65-year-old mother. The lawsuit asserts his mother had had two lung surgeries.
The lawsuit alleges Moody had asked to wear a mask to “protect himself from contracting COVID-19.
but was denied.
The lawsuit said he raised these concerns in a meeting with a hospital administrator, in the presence of at least one coworker.
The lawsuit says he refused to return to work after March 10, and was ultimately “constructively discharged.”
The lawsuit asserts he was fired for attempting to “disclose public corruption or wrongdoing.”
In a statement to several media outlets, a spokesperson for Advocate South Suburban Hospital said the hospital is "committed to maintaining the safest environment possible for our patients and team members" and is "reviewing the complaint."