By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
Former fertility specialist Dr. Misty Blanchette Porter is now owed $1.125 million after a jury found that Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center broke Vermont’s disability discrimination law when it fired her in 2017.
But the verdict represents a partial victory for Blanchette Porter, who alleged the hospital also violated the New Hampshire discrimination law, the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as whistleblower laws by engaging in retaliation against her.
Geoffrey Vitt, Blanchette Porter’s lead attorney, told the Valley News his client is “thrilled with the verdict and feels vindicated that the jury found discrimination and awarded substantial damages.”
Blanchette Porter has been fighting her termination for almost eight years, since DHMC closed its division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, REI, and fired her and two other doctors. With the verdict reached Thursday in the United States District Court in Burlington, Vermont, the stage is now set for Blanchette Porter to seek legal fees from DHMC.
Audra Burns, DHMC’s director of media relations, told the Valley News the hospital is pleased with the verdict, despite the million-dollar damages award.
“We are gratified that the jury agreed with Dartmouth Health,” Burns told the Valley News. “They found no retaliation, no wrongful discharge, no disability discrimination under New Hampshire law, and no violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Additionally they found no whistleblower liability, and rejected the plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages.”
The lawsuit makes a number of claims about Blanchette Porter’s firing, most of which the jury did not think she proved. Blanchette Porter was the main teaching physician in the REI unit when she was fired and the unit closed, according to her lawsuit. In the months before the closure, Blanchette Porter had repeatedly warned her supervisors and hospital administration about the incompetence and unsafe practices of the REI’s lead doctor, and a junior doctor she had been supervising.
The lead physician, who is not named in the lawsuit, left women in more pain than normal after he harvested oocytes as part of a fertility treatment, the nurses and staff told Blanchette Porter. There was also concern he was performing inappropriate procedures on patients without their consent, the lawsuit states.
“In July 2016, Dr. Blanchette Porter was approached on multiple occasions by the REI nurses, ultrasound technicians, and embryologists who expressed serious reservations about the substandard technical ability of the new REI Division Director and other concerns impacting patient safety. The staff stated that they did not have confidence in the ability of this physician to competently handle the work, and providers within the Department were reluctant to contact this physician when he was on call for general gynecology due to his limited skill with gynecologic surgery,” the lawsuit states.
The junior physician had such a lack of knowledge and skill that other, more experienced, surgical residents were frequently assigned to assist him in the operating room to prevent injury to patients.
“Blanchette Porter described specific instances in which injury to patients had been prevented only because other medical professionals had intervened,” the lawsuit states.
On top of that, Blanchette Porter was frequently assigned to perform free IVF services for this junior doctor’s patients as his poor skills resulted in a higher than normal failure rate, the lawsuit states. But when she told her supervisors about the problems, the REI division director told her she was being “elitist.”
But DHMC disputed Blanchette Porter’s version of events, and weeks of testimony did not move the jury to accept her claims. The accusation from Blanchette Porter that did land with the jury was that she was fired because of a disability.
At the time of the May, 2017 REI closure, Blanchette Porter was scheduled for a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for treatment related to a disability. This disability, caused by a 2015 injury, had already resulted in long-term leave for Blanchette Porter. She started work again in late 2016 on a limited, part-time basis, but the recovery was not progressing and Blanchette Porter would need another treatment and possibly more leave. This disability, and the accommodations Blanchette Porter required, contributed to the hospital’s decision to fire her, the lawsuit states.
“After Dr. Blanchette Porter’s employment was terminated, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock administration told members of the staff that the decision to terminate her employment was motivated by the fact that she had been out of work for an extended period and was only able to work part-time,” the lawsuit states.
Blanchette Porter is currently employed at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington.