A federal jury in Colorado has closed out a six-year legal fight between a former intensive care nurse and the hospital system that fired her, and the number attached to the verdict is hard to ignore, according to Atlanta Black Star. DonQuenick Joppy, who once worked in the ICU at The Medical Center of Aurora, spent years fighting allegations that followed a patient’s death, including manslaughter charges that were eventually dropped. That fight ended last month with a jury finding that the hospital had retaliated against her for complaining about racial discrimination.
Jurors awarded Joppy $20 million, split between $5 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages, after finding that HCA-HealthOne, the parent company of the Aurora hospital, terminated her in retaliation for complaints she had made about discrimination on the job. U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney approved the verdict the following day, bringing the discrimination and retaliation claims to a verdict after years of litigation over Joppy’s firing.
