A Florida nurse has claimed a doctor intentionally infected her with COVID-19 after she complained about the lack of personal protective equipment in the office.
Venise Jean-Baptiste has filed a lawsuit alleging that her boss, Dr. Joseph Piperato, denied her PPE and showed up to work with symptoms of the virus after going in March to a dance festival in Miami Beach, news station WSVN reported.
“He was coughing more, and you could tell he may be sick,” Jean-Baptiste told the outlet.
She said she had been hounding him before he fell ill to get the office at the Project Access Foundation to follow COVID-19 guidelines.
“We didn’t have N95 masks,” Jean-Baptiste said. “The masks that we did have, they wouldn’t allow us to wear for every single patient.”
Jean-Baptiste said they were both walking in the hallway when she suggested the visibly-sick doctor get tested for the virus.
But that’s when she said her boss stopped, turned and coughed in her direction.
“He just went ‘Ahhh,’ and he said, ‘Well, if I have it, now you have it, too. Now, leave me alone,’” Jean-Baptist said.
She said days later she and her 2-year-old son, Abel, began experiencing symptoms, forcing her to spend more than a week in the hospital fighting the virus.
“I called my family and said, ‘This is what I want you to do with my son … just in case if I don’t make it, because I don’t think I’m going to make it,’” Jean-Baptiste told news station WPLG.
Jean-Baptiste has since recovered but is seeking damages for her health, her medical bills and her recovery.
The Project Access Foundation has denied the allegations, saying they were following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention including symptom checks and providing PPE, the outlets reported.
“The allegations set forth in the complaint are unfounded and will be aggressively defended,” the nonprofit organization said.
