boss of the year

norm

well, more like major asshole of the year

A New York Long Island woman said she was fired after she donated a kidney to help save the life of her boss.

Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, filed a formal complaint with the New York State Human Rights Commission last Friday, claiming her boss used her for her organ then fired her "after the woman got what she wanted." Stevens' boss, 61-year-old Jackie Brucia, is one of the West Islip controllers for Atlantic Automotive Group, a billion-dollar dealership operator. Brucia hired Stevens in January 2009 as an assistant.

"She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery," Stevens told ABCNews.com. "It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney." Although Stevens turned out to be less than a perfect kidney match for Brucia, Stevens donated her organ to an out-of-state stranger so that Brucia could move up on the organ donor list.

Stevens left the company in June 2010 to move to Florida. She returned to New York in September to visit her daughter, and decided to stop in at the dealership, according to the complaint. It was during this visit that Brucia told Stevens of her need for a kidney transplant.

"She said she had a possible donor, a friend or something," Stevens said. "But I told her if anything happened that I'd be willing to donate my kidney. She kind of jokingly replied, 'You never know, I may have to take you up on that one day.'"

A few months later, Stevens moved back to Long Island and asked Brucia if she had any job openings. Brucia hired her within weeks.

Then, in January 2011, Stevens said her boss called her into her office and asked if she was serious about donating her kidney.

"I said, 'Yeah, sure. This isn't a joking matter,'" Stevens said. "I did not do it for job security. I didn't do it to get a raise. I did it because it's who I am.

"I didn't want her to die," Stevens said.

When tests revealed that Stevens was not the best match, doctors agreed to let her give her kidney to someone in Missouri, which gave Brucia a higher place on the organ donor list.

Stevens underwent surgery on Aug. 10, 2011. She said doctors hit a nerve in her leg, causing her discomfort and digestive problems.

She returned to work four weeks later, and said that's when the problems began.

"I don't have words strong enough or large enough to describe her treatment of me," Stevens said. "Screaming at me about things I never did, carrying on to the point where she wouldn't even let me leave my desk. It was constant, constant screaming."

Stevens said she was demoted and moved to a car dealership 50 miles from her home. She said the mental stress got even worse, with her supervisor calling her an "actress."

"It got so bad that I'd start to tear up at times," Stevens said.

After consulting a psychiatrist for her mental stress, Stevens' hired attorneys who sent a letter to Atlantic Automotive Group.

Stevens was fired within a week.

When reached by ABC News, AAG referred all calls about the case to Jackie Brucia, Stevens' supervisor, who could not be reached for comment, at either the car dealership or her home. It is not known whether Brucia has legal representation at this time.

Stevens' attorney, civil rights lawyer Lenard Leeds, said he planned to file a discrimination lawsuit against AAG, and would likely seek millions of dollars in compensation.

"Our ultimate goal is to bring this before federal court," Leeds said. "We're alleging they discriminated against her for her disability and they retaliated against her when she complained about the harassment."

Leeds said the damages sought will be for Stevens' lost pay, psychological and physical well being.

"I have no comment on her. I'm just going walk ahead and live my life," Stevens said.
http://abcnews.go.com/News/york-mom-fir ... 5bXDtnLn9N

rick1zoo2

maybe she was a terrible employee?

JK_Livin

rick1zoo2 wrote:

maybe she was a terrible employee?

with a terrible kidney

Slap upside the head

I don't quite understand how donating her kidney to someone out of state moved her boss up the list.

DS1119

The car business is brutal.

Monster Rain

Slap upside the head wrote:

I don't quite understand how donating her kidney to someone out of state moved her boss up the list.

I think it's just a matter of there being 1 less person on the list.

Who Princess

In a way this doesn't surprise me. I've read that of married couples where one donates a kidney to the other who needs it, the recipient frequently files for divorce afterwards. :crazy:

rick1zoo2

Slap upside the head wrote:

I don't quite understand how donating her kidney to someone out of state moved her boss up the list.

I have heard of this before, it's when you have willing donors and recipients that are not compatable and they do a 'swap' with others in the same situation. This article explains how they were able to do a 5-way swap in one day:

5-way kidney swap offers hope for unmatched donorsBy Alan Duke, CNNApril 3, 2011 6:20 p.m. EDT
April Langstraat, 65, waited on a transplant list for five years before Friday's surgery.

(CNN) -- Five who desperately needed new kidneys got them Friday in an unusual five-way kidney transplant swap at a San Francisco hospital made possible by a computer program.

"It's just an amazing gift," said April Langstraat, a 65-year-old Selma, California, woman who waited on a transplant list for five years before Friday's surgery.

Alan Langstraat, 62, wanted to give a kidney to his wife, but his organ was incompatible.

Instead, his kidney was transplanted into another patient at California Pacific Medical Center Friday, while his wife received an organ from a stranger who agreed to the swap.

"It's a rare opportunity," Langstraat told CNN affiliate KTVU-TV before a surgeon removed one of his kidneys.

The process was repeated five times Friday, with a live kidney going to someone who had a friend or relative willing to donate an organ that was not compatible for them but was a match for one of the others.

This was the third five-way kidney swap done in the United States, hospital spokesman Kevin McCormick said Sunday. Computer software is becoming increasingly effective in making complex paired donation matches, he said.

"Every time we do one of these kidney paired donations, taking the patients off the waiting list, in a sense, it's another kidney available for somebody who doesn't have a living donor option," said Dr. Steve Katznelson, the medical director of California Pacific's kidney transplant program.

Each recipient and donor agreed to guidelines to prevent "a breakdown along the way," with a donor "suddenly saying 'I changed my mind'" after the surgeries for the first had started, McCormick said.

"Everyone was pretty much in the same boat," he said.

The donors did not know which patient would get their kidneys before the surgery and no one would find out unless each person agreed later.

The procedures, involving 50 doctors, nurses and support staff, began at 7:30 a.m. with the last patient rolling out of surgery 10 hours later, McCormick said.

"They're all doing well," he said Sunday. The transplant results are "very promising," he said.

For the Langstraat family, the paired donation advance has added importance for their future. April Langstraat's daughter Charlotte and son Henry inherited her genetic polycystic kidney disease, which means they expect to need transplants in the future.

Although 83,000 people are on the U.S. waiting list for kidney transplants, the number of live kidney donors declined from 6,647 in 2004 to 6,387 in 2009, according to the National Kidney Foundation.