The Asian reporter., June 01, 2020, Page 7, Image 7

U.S.A.
June 1, 2020
Doctor fired after blasting COVID
preparations sues hospital
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
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By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
S
EATTLE — An emergency room
doctor who was fired after he
publicly criticized the coronavirus
preparations
at
his
hospital
in
Washington state is suing for wrongful
termination.
Dr. Ming Lin worked at PeaceHealth St.
Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham for
17 years before he was fired in late March.
He had been criticizing the hospital’s
leadership on his Facebook page and in
media interviews, saying they had been
slow to screen visitors for symptoms and to
obtain protection equipment or take other
precautions for staff.
PeaceHealth’s chief operating officer,
Richard DeCarlo, in April said Lin had
been removed from his position for
creating a “toxic work environment.”
But amid the pandemic, the U.S. Labor
Department has issued reminders to
employers that it is illegal to retaliate
against employees who report unsafe
working conditions.
Lin’s attorneys with the Seattle firm of
Schroeter Goldmark and Bender and the
American Civil Liberties Union of
Washington filed the lawsuit in Whatcom
County Superior Court in Bellingham. The
complaint noted that neither PeaceHealth
nor TeamHealth, the company that
handles physician staffing at the hospital,
had policies preventing his use of
Facebook or speaking to reporters.
“Hopefully my actions will bring some
publicity to the fact that healthcare
workers for a long time have been
repressed and they’re not allowed to speak
up for safety because they fear termination
and being reprimanded,” Lin said in a
phone interview from a hospital on the
Rosebud Indian Reservation in South
Dakota, where he frequently works
weeklong rotations.
PeaceHealth did not immediately
respond to an e-mail seeking comment. In
an e-mailed statement, TeamHealth said
Lin remains a paid contract physician.
Both are named as defendants.
“TeamHealth values the hard work of
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brother-in-law, who’d left the capital
region after the lockdown was imposed on
March 25. Kumari, an eighth-grade
student who moved from the village to
Gurugram in January to take care of her
dad, stayed on.
She said she was still exhausted from
the trip.
“It was a difficult journey,” she said.
“The weather was too hot, but we had no
choice. I had only one aim in my mind, and
that was to reach home.”
Upon their arrival, village officials
placed Kumari’s father in a quarantine
center, a policy many state and local
governments in India have implemented
to try to keep returning migrants from
spreading the coronavirus. They are now
all quarantining at home.
India’s ongoing two-month lockdown
appears to have staved off an immediate
spike in virus cases, buying the country
time to build up reserves of medical
supplies and expand intensive care unit
capacity. India has confirmed at least
190,000 cases, including 5,400 deaths.
But the lockdown triggered a
humanitarian crisis, with thousands of
poor people heading back to distant
villages on foot, carrying the elderly on
their shoulders and with small children
slumped over rolling suitcases. Dozens of
people have died on the way, struck by
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WHISTLEBLOWER’S RESPONSE. This
photo taken on March 27, 2020 and provided by
Dr. Ming Lin depicts him at his home in Bellingham,
Washington. Lin, who was fired from his position as
an emergency room physician at PeaceHealth St.
Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham after he publicly
criticized the hospital’s leadership in responding to
COVID-19, sued for wrongful termination on May 28,
2020. (Ming Lin via AP)
our doctors, who are doing heroic work on
the frontlines of the pandemic,” the
company said.
St. Joe’s adopted several of the
recommendations Lin had made on his
Facebook page, Lin noted, including
finding a different lab that could provide
quicker COVID-19 test results, providing
scrubs for ER nurses, and requiring face
masks.
The lawsuit alleges that PeaceHealth
offered Lin a chance to take a job at a
hospital in Oregon or other, part-time
positions at a lower pay within 50 miles of
his home in Bellingham.
“While we believe your actions and
comments both inside and outside of work
were intended to be constructive and a
catalyst for change, unfortunately it is not
possible for you to return to PeaceHealth,”
TeamHealth official Dr. Robert Frantz
wrote him, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks Lin’s reinstatement
at St. Joe’s as well as back pay, damages,
and legal fees.
Desperate Indian girl bikes 745
miles home with disabled dad
Continued from page 2
Call (503) 980-5900 for details
trains or trucks, from hunger or suicide.
India’s expansive railway system, the
country’s lifeline, was closed to passenger
service as part of the lockdown. Busses,
planes, and taxis were also banned. In
early May, the government resumed
limited train travel for migrants wishing
to return home.
For India’s economy, mostly composed of
informal sector jobs, the lockdown has
been crippling. The government has been
easing restrictions in recent weeks to allow
more people to go back to work.
Kumari heard about the special trains,
but her father, unable to walk, wouldn’t
have been able to reach the railway
platform. So she decided they would bike.
Kumari’s journey caught the attention
of the Cycling Federation of India. The
racing body, which sends teams to the
Olympics, has offered to bring her back to
New Delhi by train for a tryout in June. It
also resonated in Washington, with U.S.
President Donald Trump’s daughter
Ivanka Trump calling it “a beautiful feat of
endurance and love” on Twitter.
Kumari said that while she was happy
with the recognition, she hadn’t cycled her
father home in pursuit of fame.
“It was a decision taken in desperation,”
she said.