Brooklyn Hospital Falsely Told People They Were HIV-Positive
According to a new whistleblower lawsuit, lab technicians at the Kings County Hospital Center have repeatedly incorrectly told healthy people that they were HIV-positive and told some people who had tested positive for Hepatitis C that they were healthy.
And, according to the suit, another patient may have died due to the hospital's failure to report his blood-level changes.
The whistleblower, 51-year-old Lilli Hutchison, has worked in the lab for 23 years and apparently began trying to report the problems as far back as 2002.
Instead of addressing the issues, however, Hutchison says she was retaliated against; supervisors were rude, she was denied training, she was assaulted, she was transferred to other departments, and denied promotions, even though the hospital desperately needed lab technicians.
In 2011, Hutchison notified the Department of Health, which investigated and substantiated her claims.
The hospital received multiple violations, and Hutchison says that in retaliation, her superiors accused her of workplace violations and suspended her for several days.
