When delivering the news that someone is saddled with one of the worst possible diagnoses known to modern medicine, it's sometimes necessary to double check—hell, triple check—that you're giving the information to the correct patient. This was apparently too much to ask of one Brooklyn hospital, whose botched lab work resulted in several patients being told that they were HIV positive when they weren't, and others that they'd tested negative for Hepatitis C—when they were actually positive.
It's possible that none of this would have come to light if not for whistle-blowing by one lab employee, who is now suing Kings County Hospital on the basis that her superiors allegedly punished her for attempting to curb the oft-made mix-ups, DNAinfo reports.
51-year-old lab associate Lili Hutchison alleged in a lawsuit that her colleagues have made her life a living hell since 2002, when she first notified the inspector general for the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation that much of the lab staff was unfit for their jobs, on the basis that they routinely muddled life-changing lab results.
“We believe that, because Lili has spoken out about matters impacting the health and safety of the public, that she has been subjected to a steady stream of retaliation and harassment,” her lawyer, Thomas A. Ricotta, told the news site. “We intend to pursue all of her rights and remedies to the fullest extent permissible under the law, as no hospital or health care provider should take action to punish employees who seek to protect the public."
Hutchison persisted, eventually having her claims of the slipshod care substantiated by the Department of Health, which issued the hospital several violations for patient safety and quality assurance standards, the lawsuit says. In return, Hutchison was denied a promotion and even suspended for two days, allegedly in retaliation for her attempts to bring the appalling situation in the lab to light. Despite all this, Hutchison is still employed by Kings County Hospital.
Reached for comment, the hospital's communication's department said they were "just finding out" about the lawsuit, and declined to offer a statement.
In 2008, the hospital was thrust into the national spotlight after a patient died of neglect on the facility's floor, an incident in which several hospital workers were charged with attempting to cover up.
