An OR nurse is suing Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo., for allegedly ignoring her complaints about a surgeon who allegedly threw a 4-by-6-inch piece of bloody human tissue at her during an open heart surgery last year.
Sonja Morris, RN, says Bryan Mahan, MD, joked to other surgeons in the room after tossing the piece of tissue, which hit her in the leg, during the surgery. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Ms. Morris claims in the suit that Dr. Mahan had harassed her before — hitting her in the head twice in summer 2008. Ms. Morris says she filed a complaint about Dr. Mahan after the tissue-throwing incident, but the hospital never disciplined him.
In December 2008, she filed a notice of claim against both Dr. Mahan and the hospital to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charging that she faced a hostile work environment because of her gender. After taking that action, Ms. Morris says the hospital transferred her from the heart surgery team and to the main OR — a move considered a demotion.
The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court, names only the hospital, not the surgeon, as a defendant.
—Irene Tsikitas
