A Monroe County jury has awarded nearly $150,000 to a former nurse practitioner in a case against Aberdeen’s Pioneer Hospital.
Jurors found that the hospital wrongfully terminated Lisa Cooper after she reported abuse of an elderly patient. The jurors awarded Cooper $148,566 in lost salary.
Tupelo attorney Jim Waide, who represented Cooper, said he will advise an appeal of the verdict, even though Cooper won the case. Waide said Monroe Circuit Judge Jim Pounds prevented jurors from awarding Cooper emotional or punitive damages in the case.
Waide said the case stemmed from a June 2012 incident where the hospital physically harmed a patient while trying to force a tube down their throat, against the patient’s wishes. The patient died from injuries sustained in the incident, according to the complaint.
Cooper learned of the abuse and received a photo of the patient’s injuries from the family and reported the incident. She reported the incident, but was terminated after she refused to reveal who furnished the picture of the patient to her, according to Waide.
Cooper’s complaint alleged that she was fired in breach of contract because the contract allowed her to be “continuously employed for a one-year period unless given a 90 day notice of termination at the end of a contract year.” According to the complaint, no such notice was offered.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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