A veteran nurse claims she was unfairly terminated from her 20-year employment with a Texas cardiovascular group after complaining about a hostile work environment in which staff posted derogatory statements about her, as well as photos of sedated patients, on the social networking site Facebook.

Debbie Blevins, LVN, alleges that Tyler Cardiovascular Consultants fired her on Aug. 9, 2010, immediately before she was to begin seeking retirement benefits, despite the fact that she "was never the subject of any disciplinary actions or warnings," according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas. The 43-year-old nurse, who was acting as a supervisor at the time of her termination, says she had complained to management in writing about a number of workplace violations, including age, race and sex discrimination (she says her duties were assigned to younger employees of "Hispanic or foreign origin"), violations of the Equal Pay Act and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and a pattern of favoritism and toleration of abuse that contributed to an overall hostile work environment.

The lawsuit details one incident in which staff posted photos of a sedated patient underdoing cardiac catheterization at Trinity Mother Frances Hospital on Facebook without the patient's consent. Ms. Blevins and her lawyer claim that the hospital took no disciplinary action against the doctor who posted the photos and took "no steps to prevent this type of illicit behavior from re-occuring." The plaintiff further alleges that "a pattern seems to exist where other pictures of sedated patients were posted on social networking websites, including a former player for the Dallas Cowboys."

Instead of responding to her complaints, Tyler CVC "instituted a pattern of deliberate retaliation in the form of disparaging criticism that is not constructive but rather generated to little by little eat away at Blevins' character," the lawsuit alleges. She was terminated from her position just as she was about to seek retirement benefits.

Ms. Blevins has requested a jury trial and is seeking more than $16.25 million in back pay, lost benefits, forward pay, pain and suffering and punitive damages, plus attorney's fees and court costs.

Tyler Cardiovascular Consultants did not immediately return calls seeking comments for this article.

Irene Tsikitas

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