Nurses Accused Of Abuse Get Jury Awards
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
The state Supreme Court is upholding jury
awards for two nurses who claimed they were defamed by wrongful
firings after nursing assistants accused them of abusing patients
at a Fayetteville nursing home.
The court ruled unanimously for Diane Owens and Alisa Main. They
were fired from Fayetteville Health and Rehabilitation after
complaining about abuse and neglect of resident by nursing
assistants. The assistants in turn charged the pair with abuse, and
the nurses were fired.
The court found that jurors could have reasonably concluded that
Northport Health Services acted in bad faith when it reported the
accusations to the state Office of Long-Term Care and to the
Fayetteville Police Department.
The jury awarded Owens more than 67-thousand dollars for
wrongful termination and 200,000 dollars for defamation, and
awarded Main 65,000 dollars for defamation.
Posted by Mike Hellgren
