Nurse fired for treating Muslims

Get short URL

Published time: November 25, 2011 18:19
Edited time: November 25, 2011 22:19

Tags

Culture, Health, Law, Religion, USA

A former medic in Dearborn, Michigan is going after his old employers with a sex discrimination suit. According to John Benitez Jr, he lost his job with the city’s Department of Health because he provided medical care to Muslim patients.

Benitez, 63, has spent half his life as a registered nurse. In September 2010, he joined the ranks of Dearborn’s Health Department to assist patients in one of the largest Muslim communities in America. Even with a booming population of immigrants practicing Islam, the nurse says that his supervisor told him that they were off limits.

Benitez says that his former employer lectured him against providing care to female Muslim patients that sought help, and instead asked him to send them to her, a Muslim, for treatment. According to the suit recently filed, the Muslim supervisor told Benitez that “conservative” Muslims, specifically women garbed in hijab head scarves, would not want to be touched by a male nurse. Benitez followed the instruction until November 17, when according to the legal filing, a doctor questioned him "about the cumbersome and unusual practice of taking women wearing a head scarf to the nursing supervisor for care.” As a trained, licensed medical professional — and employee of the city — Benitez should have been providing care to anyone in need. After the doctor confronted him about it in November and said the supervisor’s instructions were “improper,” Benitez went back to treating everyone that came in.

Only two weeks later, Benitez was fired.

According to the legal papers, the nurse was explicitly told that the termination 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." More than 30 years after entering the practice — a tenure which included a stint asVietnam war Army medic — the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave Benitez the go ahead to sue last month and on Wednesday he filed the discrimination suit in Detroit U.S. District Court

City officials have not offered any comments to the media just yet, though Benitez’ attorney says that their client is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as his job reinstated and lost wages and benefits.

Comments (15)

Iza 20.01.2012 11:07

Tom (unregistered) wrote in #2 Again, it is unfortunate that the subject of the article lost his job (surely there were other ways of dealing with the situation); however, frankly it appears to me that he was insufficiently sensitive to the needs of the Muslim population. Thanks. Wha t are you talking about? He was taking female patients to the female nurse, until his superiors told him to stop, then he got fired for stopping. He WAS sensitive to their needs.Vulture wrote in #12 Bogdanov (unregistered) November 26, 2011, 22:33 3People are turning to gods because they are looking for protection, security, and some missing comfort in life. When society antagonizes the m, limits their freedom, and make them being outcasts and defenseless (promotes inequality), that will only increase the army of religious people. Give chance to Muslims, Christians,.. to be a regular members of the society, treat them equally (not giving privileges and not humiliating) and respectfully, give them chance to educate themselves and, most probably, they will abandon their imaginary creatures in the sky. Voluntarily.This is a silly comment. Why thrust your Atheist religious beliefs upon other people. You are just as much a religious fundamentalist it seems as the most extreme Muslim Jew or Christian. Infact your even more deluded because you try and make out that you aint religious when you are. Wtf are you on about? How is he thrusting his beliefs on other people? All he said was that people should be treat with equality, given opportuni ties, etc. And frankly it is a fact that the more educated are less likely to subscribe to religious&nb sp;teachings, especially of a fundamentalist bent. Also "atheist religi ous beliefs" is an oxymoron: Atheism is a lack of religion that denies all gods. Atheism is to religion as bald is to hair color.
As for the article, good for the doctor! I think he should sue and I hope he wins.

Undo

Come on Man 28.11.2011 15:51

Come on man, the woman obviously accepted the treatment of a trained medical professional. I don't even see were she asked to see a female. This is AMERICA not Iran, if you like to be under the rule of religion or any other force then go live were where this is the norm. You can not accept treatment and than after it is over whine about who performed it, you need to stipulate your desires before the fact not after. As a male in AMERICA I have been attended to by female health care workers and thought little of it. Now a guy is out of work for doing his job and that is wrong. In the good ole USA you have the right to get treated by who you desire as long as you specify it and do not accept the treatment first. I assume this person could have gone to a Islamic health center where Islam is considered. In a regular health center you get regular health care. If you need something out of the ordinary you need to go to a special place where that is offered. I am all for freedom of religion and practice religion myself, however I do not expect the world to read my mind or know what I may or may not consider appropriate. It is totally inappropriate to provide different health care for different people based on their appearance. Should blacks only see black doctors? Should whites only see white doctors? Should men refuse to see woman doctors regardless of their qualifications? If the woman was bleeding to death should a man wait on a woman to attend her? This is about the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of. Go to the Hospital accept medical attention and then complain, not about the quality of care, but who provided it in accordance with their described duties.

Undo

Larry (unregistered) 28.11.2011 05:52

So what...Neither Benitez nor many Islamists are honest and deserve little attention..Benitez is obviously trying to divert attention away from his own warped behavior by playing a sensational politically correct card while as long as Muslims continue to perform travesties against people of other religions around the world, why give them any sympathy?

Undo

View all comments (15)