Photo Credit: hxdbzxy // Shutterstsock
A black nurse is suing the hospital she worked at for allegedly honoring the request of a patient who didn’t want her caring for her because she’s African-American.
According to ABC News, Teoka Williams been a nurse at Beaumont Health for ten years. On Oct. 2, 2017, she was assigned two patients and said when she was within earshot, one patient said she did not want “a black b-ch” tending to her. Teoka went to her supervisor under the assumption the request wouldn’t be honored.
However, Teoka was told to not report back to the room and was replaced with a white nurse. Julie Gafkay, Teoka’s lawyer, said his client was “embarrased” and shouldn’t have been denied the chance to do her job because she’s black. “She was very upset because she is a good nurse. There’s no reason she should be excluded from caring for a patient. She was segregated based solely on her race.”
Teoka also took her request to Human Resources, where she was told patient’s requests are honored regularly and if something like that happens again she’d be removed from the assignment altogether. She is taking the legal route because she doesn’t want what happened to her, happen to another black nurse.
Written By: Fantasia Harvey