Nurse claims she was fired for winning med mal case

A registered nurse who won a medical negligence case against Memorial Hospital in 2005 claims she was fired for seeking compensation for her son's brain damage.

Seeking $6 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the hospital and its former CEO Harry Maier, Amy Bauer claims the hospital intended to make an example of her to deter others from suing Memorial.

Bauer worked for Health Care Physicians of Southern IL, which occupied office space owned by the hospital, according to Bauer's suit filed July 6 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

Bauer, represented by Rex Carr of East St. Louis, claims she obtained a verdict for her son on Dec. 3, 2005.

"That shortly thereafter...the defendants maliciously and intentionally interfered with her economic expectation and advantage of continued employment by inducing, pressuring, and causing her employer to suspend her on the 5th day of December, 2005, and thereafter terminate her employment on November 30, 2006...," the complaint states.

Bauer claims her termination was made "under circumstances which would make it extremely difficult to be re-employed in the community as a registered nurse, the defendants knowing that they exercised a degree of power and authority over the plaintiff and over the plaintiff's prospective employers in the community..."

Bauer seeks $1 million in lost wages and $5 million in punitive damages.