Posted on 06/02/2023 1:43:12 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Ming Lin, MD, says he wants an admission of wrongdoing instead of millions
Ming Lin, MD, the emergency medicine physician from Washington state who was fired early in the COVID pandemic for publicly airing alleged safety concerns, said he has broken with his lawyers over their advice to settle his case.
In a Facebook postopens in a new tab or window, Lin said his lawyers "have asked me to accept a monetary settlement as they have abruptly determined that a trial would be too costly and is not worth the financial risk."
Lin told the Cascadia Daily Newsopens in a new tab or window that he wants his former employer, PeaceHealth, to admit wrongdoing instead.
"Morally this is unacceptable to me as my silence is not for sale," Lin wrote in the Facebook post. "The objective of my lawsuit has always been to expose the facts that healthcare workers are retaliated against for speaking up for their patients' safety. Acknowledgement is the first step needed to solve this problem."
"To me the root of the problem has always been corporate healthcare as it prioritizes profit over patient care and staff safety," he noted.
In May 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington filed a lawsuit against PeaceHealthopens in a new tab or window on behalf of Lin. About 2 months prior, Lin had written a letter to the chief medical officer of his hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington, and shared it on his Facebook pageopens in a new tab or window. He raised concerns about visitor screening, personal protective equipment, and testing of staff and patients, among others.
He subsequently lost his shifts at the hospital, according to earlier reporting by MedPage Todayopens in a new tab or window. Lin had worked at the hospital since 2003 and has been an emergency physician for more than 30 years, he said at the time.
As of press time, Lin had not returned a request for comment from MedPage Today, but he told the Cascadia Daily News that he would rather take the case to trial than accept settlement money. He said he met with his lawyers last week to discuss the case.
"I was told the other party wants to mediate, and we should demand $2 million," Lin told the news outlet. "I said I'm not willing to settle unless there's some form of acknowledgment of right or wrong here."
Lin said his lawyers told him "that would never happen," according to the paper.
A spokesperson for the ACLU of Washington told MedPage Today that the organization did not have a statement on the case.
Lin's case is set to go to trial in February 2024.
author['full_name'] Kristina Fiore leads MedPage’s enterprise & investigative reporting team. She’s been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.fiore@medpagetoday.com. Follow
His lawyers will loudly quit.
May we all be warriors like this.
This Doctor Lin has a real backbone. Two thumbs WAAAAY UP !!
His lawyers will quietly pocket $2M from somewhere and then loudly quit.
Good for him. I pray justice will prevail.
They are trying to turn this principled physician into a whore.
My friend has an Airbnb and recently hosted a traveling nurse who was working in Texas during covid and told him she was horrified by what she witnessed. She said they did nothing for these dying covid patients except pump them full of the toxic and ineffective Remdesivir and then hook them up to a ventilator until they died. She said the doctors there didn’t seem to care about the patients at all. She had previously worked in Canada and said doctors there seemed to care more about their patients than the ones down here.
If the lawyers take a case like this on a contingency basis, then an admission of wrongdoing by the defendant might be worth more than a bazillion dollars to the plaintiff but is worth $0 to the lawyers.
If the good doctor settles, the lawyers’ fees are guaranteed; if he goes to trial, it’s a crapshoot for them. You know: “A bird in hand...”
Does ACLU do it for the money?
They have to get paid some way or another, no?
That they just want to settle is just more proof that the ACLU is mostly about money unless they are out to promote communism.
"Morally this is unacceptable to me as my silence is not for sale. The objective of my lawsuit has always been to expose the facts that healthcare workers are retaliated against for speaking up for their patients' safety. Acknowledgement is the first step needed to solve this problem."
Two notable exceptions to this are cases involving fraud and civil rights violations. The ACLU may work “pro bono” on civil rights cases, but that only means their client doesn’t pay legal fees. You can be sure they negotiate their legal fees as part of any settlement.
“’...my silence is not for sale. The objective of my lawsuit has always been to expose the facts that healthcare workers are retaliated against for speaking up for their patients’ safety...’”
Quote of the month... no, of the year!
“Lin said his lawyers “have asked me to accept a monetary settlement as they have abruptly determined that a trial would be too costly and is not worth the financial risk.””
Translation: We want our cut of a settlement check next month, not two years from now.
And 2 million settlement? The lawyers and taxes taking at least half. When you consider his earnings, that is chump change for badly damaging the reputation and career of a young doctor.
Good Lord, I did a Joe Biden when reading “postopens in a new tab or window”. smh
Seems to me an admission of guilt by the hospital would open the floodgates for other lawsuits...
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