Black Colorado ICU nurse wins $20,000,000 after hospital had her arrested over a 93yo patient’s death. Then she sues: ‘Had to defend my integrity’
Some truths take the long way home
Being blamed for something serious at work can put more than a job at risk. And when an employee believes there was already a problem behind the scenes, getting answers can take years.
For Colorado nurse DonQuenick Joppy, that fight followed the death of a 93-year-old ICU patient. She was fired and later faced criminal charges, while maintaining that the hospital’s actions came after she had complained about racial discrimination.
According to Atlanta Black Star, Joppy eventually took her fight against the hospital’s parent company to court. Years after losing her job, a federal jury reached a decision that changed where the case stood.
“We are sick people”
Joppy, a 41-year-old Black registered nurse, began working in The Medical Center of Aurora’s ICU in 2017. She claimed she was treated differently from non-Black nurses despite receiving a favorable performance review and positive feedback from patients.
Her lawsuit alleged that charge nurses yelled at and undermined her. One allegedly told Joppy that because she was good at cleaning, she should “clean his house and clip his dog’s toe nails.”
Joppy complained about her treatment but claimed little changed. She also alleged that she sometimes cared for three critically ill patients without backup while other nurses worked in teams with two patients. Speaking up about treatment inside a hospital did not make things easier for her.
In March 2019, Joppy applied for a higher-paying transfer. But her interview was canceled after she learned she had been placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. It required her to “use proper body language and tone” and receive “no further patient or family complaints.” Her lawsuit called the plan “a sham.”
Then, on May 24, Joppy was caring for a 93-year-old patient with organ failure and septic shock. He was unconscious and on a ventilator when his family decided to withdraw life support.
Joppy maintained that a respiratory therapist instructed her over the phone to disconnect the ventilator. The hospital disputed her account, saying only a respiratory therapist should have disconnected it. The therapist also denied giving her that instruction.
Hospital officials determined that Joppy had “acted outside the scope of her practice as a nurse” and claimed her actions may have caused the patient to suffer for about 13 minutes. However, a medical examiner found that he died of natural causes.
The hospital fired Joppy in June 2019 and reported the incident to state health authorities as alleged criminal neglect. Being pushed out of a nursing job was not the end of it.
In November 2020, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office charged Joppy with manslaughter and negligent death of an at-risk person, both felonies. Prosecutors dropped the charges in September 2021 “in the interest of justice.”
Joppy later sued HCA-HealthOne LLC, arguing that the hospital mischaracterized her role in the patient’s death as a reason to fire her after her racial discrimination complaints. HCA-HealthOne denied discrimination and retaliation, maintaining that she was fired for failing to follow end-of-life care protocols.
A judge dismissed Joppy’s malicious prosecution claims but allowed her discrimination and retaliation claims to proceed. After a seven-day trial, jurors found that the hospital fired Joppy in retaliation for complaining about race discrimination.
The jury awarded her $20 million—$5 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages.
“For six long years, I fought to defend my integrity as a nurse,” Joppy said, calling the earlier dismissal of the criminal charges “partial vindication.”
HCA-HealthOne said it “strongly” disagreed with the verdict and plans to appeal. It maintained that Joppy was fired “because of the actions she took, and those actions alone.”
After experiencing unstable housing and living separately from her 15-year-old daughter, Joppy is now looking ahead. “I’m looking forward to my daughter and me healing together and having a home to call our own,” she said.
“We are sick people,” she said. Racism “is a condition here in America that needs to be treated and healed.”
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