Posted on 11/29/2001 3:59:24 AM PST by summer
Lawsuit: Hospital fired nurse for talking with FBI about Sept. 11
Thursday, November 29, 2001
By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press
MIAMI — A registered nurse is suing her former employer, Fort Lauderdale Hospital, alleging she was fired for giving FBI agents information about suspected Sept. 11 hijackers on hospital grounds.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Broward County Circuit Court, Eileen Luongo of Davie seeks backpay and unspecified damages in excess of $15,000, the minimum amount required to file in state court. Luongo, 49, also wants the court to get her job back.
Luongo states that on Sept. 28 she saw published photos of men the U.S. government identified as suspects in the jetliner suicide attacks.
Luongo said she recognized four of the suspects, including suspected ringleader Mohamed Atta.
She remembered seeing the suspected terrorists using computers at the Miami offices of Seawinds Health Care Service, where she also worked.
"They came into the office when I was there alone and they used one of the computers, typed a letter and then left," Luongo said. "Mohamed Atta I saw another time on the (Seawinds) grounds."
A number listed for Seawinds was disconnected.
Luongo said Seawinds closed down in May and she stayed on to handle the sorting out of the company's insurance matters through August.
Luongo said she saw Atta in late May and the others in August.
According to the suit, Luongo agreed to briefly meet with FBI agents on Oct. 3 to look at mug shots at the start of her shift at Fort Lauderdale Hospital, where she worked part time as a registered nurse intake coordinator.
Luongo met with special agents Thomas Calhoon and Lazaro Andino in a private room, but within minutes was asked to take the meeting outside by the hospital administrator.
Luongo and the agents continued their discussion in the hospital parking lot. Upon her return to the hospital, Luongo was told she was fired.
"When I came back inside after talking to the FBI they just asked me for my keys and my badge," Luongo said. "I asked them right out 'Was it because I spoke to the FBI?' and they said 'yes.'"
Phone messages left at Fort Lauderdale Hospital were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Luongo's complaint was filed under Florida's Whistleblower Act, which protects workers from being fired for disclosing information on illegal activity by the employer to any law enforcement agency.
Robert Weisberg, Luongo's attorney, acknowledged that the circumstances in her case are not "a typical whistleblower situation," but said the law specifically applies to an employee giving information to a law enforcement agency, regardless of the information.
He said any issues regarding hospital confidentiality would not apply in this case, because the information Luongo was giving to the FBI was not about a patient of the Fort Lauderdale Hospital.
"The agents themselves made clear that she was speaking about what she knew about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," Weisberg said. "She was fired because she was speaking to these agents."
Weisberg said his client was not under any sort of probation or warning due to her job performance. Luongo remains employed at a drug treatment clinic, which she declined to name.
dep
Good question. I wonder if there's a way we can find out who owns (owned?) Seawinds.
It might have interesting implications for the anthrax story if the hijackers had privileged access to a medical facility.
CAstro has been working very hard indeed.
The project was started in January 2000 with a target survey date of July 2000.
The scope of the project included developing and implementing an alcohol and drug residential program with Detox, Residential Treatment, Partial Hospitalization and Outpatient Services.
She remembered seeing the suspected terrorists using computers at the Miami offices of Seawinds Health Care Service..."They came into the office when I was there alone and they used one of the computers, typed a letter and then left," Luongo said. "Mohamed Atta I saw another time on the (Seawinds) grounds."
Very odd. A health care service is not the public library, or your local Internet cafe, where a casual visitor can use the computers.
When I first saw this headline, I thought that the nurse would be fired for disclosing patient information -- this is weird. What is the matter with this picture?
dep
Why pick the office of a health care company to type a letter? You can do that at many public libraries, and we know Atta used computers at public libraries too.
It's hard to avoid suspecting they were after some privileged information on the health care industry.
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