Male Nurse Fired in Dearborn for Treating Muslim Women

[SF-TX]

De facto Sharia in Dearborn, Michigan. Those pesky 'conservative' Muslim males. I'll bet they are Tea Party supporters.

Nurse Says He Was Fired Over Treating Muslim Women

Published November 24, 2011

| Associated Press

DEARBORN, Mich. – A male registered nurse and Vietnam war Army medic has sued the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, saying he was fired for disobeying a Muslim supervisor's order not to treat women wearing conservative Islamic dress.

John Benitez Jr. filed a sex discrimination suit Wednesday in Detroit U.S. District Court after getting the go-ahead from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a "right to sue" letter Oct. 19.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages during the Thanksgiving holiday seeking comment from Dearborn officials. The Detroit News said a Dearborn spokeswoman declined comment.

In a complaint filed on his behalf, his lawyer, Deborah L. Gordon, said Benitez joined Dearborn's Health Department in September 2010. The 63-year-old Madison Heights resident has a three-decade nursing career. Dearborn has a large Muslim community and one of the largest Arab immigrant communities in the U.S.

Soon after starting work, Gordon said a Muslim supervisor told Benitez to refer patients wearing hijab to her, rather than treating them himself.

The complaint said Benitez complied until Nov. 17, 2010, when a doctor saw what he was doing and questioned him "about the cumbersome and unusual practice of taking women wearing a head scarf to the nursing supervisor for care," rather than going ahead and treating them.

The complaint said Benitez then began complying with the new instruction that he treat women wearing hijab.

On Dec. 1, 2010, Gordon said Benitez was fired. She said he was told it was "not because of any performance problem, but was instead carried out because the clinic's conservative male Muslim clientele did not want a male treating female patients."

Link

[BigJimCalhoun]

..and if he did not treat someone and that person died, we would be charged with a hate crime.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by SF-TX

De facto Sharia in Dearborn, Michigan.

More backassward, uneducated crap from world of the Muslim male. Muslim women's health have suffered for decades because of the belief that no male shall see her except for her insecure weanie of husband.

This is fresh on my mind because I just finished reading a story about 3 Muslim women who were allowed to die by their husbands, rather than let them be treated by a male doctor. Idiots. All of them.

Rant over.

Susan

Oh, and may that male nurse be vindicated in every way.

[mark46th]

We had better start putting an end to this nonsense. Now.

[glebo]

Originally Posted by mark46th

We had better start putting an end to this nonsense. Now.

That's a fact. This PC bullcrap and bending over (no pun intended) to those frickin idiots has got to cease.

Keep them in the 11th century. Good Lord, it never ceases to amaze me...

[Pete]

Two points I notice.

1 - It was a public health service not private.

2 - He failed to do what his supervisor told him to do.

This court case will be interesting based on - Just what rules a public provider can put in place. Wonder if the female doc's can see male patients?

[Richard]

I'll wait to hear the entire story because it appears to me as if the following could be considered in deciding this case:

• The guy was working in a city health department facility performing routine services. He was fired in December 2010 and the Dearborn, MI, health department was closed 30 June 2011 due to budget cuts and all such services are now performed at local public or private medical facilities. The Dallas County Health and Human Services is typical of such a department. http://www.dallascounty.org/department/hhs/mission.html
  
• The guy's direct supervisor told him not to do something ICW some of the local community's wishes, a not unreasonable request for a non-medical emergency.
  
• The guy's direct supervisor's orders were countermanded by someone else and he did not go back to his supervisor to let her know of the conflicting instructions from the doctor, thus having his supervisor and the doctor decide the issue before going against his direct supervisor's instructions.

I'll wait for the rest of the story.

And so it goes...

Richard

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Richard

......[*]The guy's direct supervisor told him not to do something ICW some of the local community's wishes, a not unreasonable request for a non-medical emergency.........

"Local community's wishes" gets stepped on a lot by Federal law.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by NORMAL550GIRL

Interesting problem. On one hand, the community has spoken. If a woman in a hajib does not want male medical personnel to touch her, doesn't she have that right?

On the other hand, how much of her thought-process is unduly influenced by heavy handed patriarchy and religious law?

Is she right to say no? Or is she brain-washed to say no? If you assert that she has to be treated by a male nurse, aren't you doing the same thing -- as far as limiting her choices -- as her religion/ male family members?

She needs to comply with the law of the land, just as everyone does.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Dusty

She needs to comply with the law of the land, just as everyone does.

She wasn't? Or is 'compulsory' or 'mandatory' medical treatment now the 'law of the land'?

See Commonwealth v. Twitchell, e.g. http://www.nymatlaw.com/commonwealth...-617-ne2d-609/

And so it goes...

Richard

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Richard

She wasn't? Or is 'compulsory' or 'mandatory' medical treatment now the 'law of the land'?

See Commonwealth v. Twitchell, e.g. http://www.nymatlaw.com/commonwealth...-617-ne2d-609/

And so it goes...

Richard

Did I say she wasn't?

[mark46th]

The immediate supervisor was not a doctor. A doctor told him to do something contrary to the supervisor's orders. In hospitals, I thought a doctor's words were law only superceded by a doctor higher up in the pecking order.

A doctor dies and goes to Heaven. Arriving at the Pearly Gates, he sees there is a long, long line. He walks up to the front of the line and confronts St Peter. "I'm Dr Johnson, I shouldn't have to wait in line because I am a doctor!" St Peter replies, "Everyone here is equal, you can wait just like everyone else."

Just then a man in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck walks in through the gates and says, "Hey Pete!". Dr Johnson is irate. He says, That guy is a doctor and didn't have to wait!" St Peter says, "Nah. That's God, he just thinks he's a doctor..."

[Guy]

If a female were to come me wearing a hijab and it's NOT an emergency...I'm sending her to someone else!

Stay safe.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by NORMAL550GIRL

Hmm, Dusty.

Isn't the law of the land religious freedom? Generally speaking?

It is what it is, according to locale.

[PedOncoDoc]

The patient, as the consumer and the person who is in a vulnerable situation, has the right to request a doctor in accordance with their cultural and/or religious beliefs.

Having said that -- and unless I am missing something -- I didn't see any report of formal complaints raised by female patients in traditional garb - the complaint was by the supervising nurse, who also is expected to carry out orders written by the treating physician (unless felt to be harmful/erroneous). Perhaps the supervising nurse is forcing her beliefs on her female patients based upon assumptions made by how they dress. Is that not also inappropriate?


It would be interesting to see what would happen if a patient refused to be seen by a muslim physician, or a gay physician, or a black physician (or a gay black muslim physician), and the physician wanted recourse due to "descrimination".