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Boss Needs Kidney, Employee Donates Kidney, Boss Fires Employee, Lawsuit Alleges
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 23, 2012
Modified Apr 23, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 23, 2012
Modified Apr 23, 2012
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You thought the donated kidney divorce was bad? An executive for a group of Long Island car dealerships is at the center of a strange lawsuit filed by a former employee who accuses her boss of firing her after she gave up a kidney to help save her life. According to a lawsuit filed with the New York State Human Rights commission, Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, donated a kidney so that her boss, Jackie Brucia, 61, could get a transplant. Not long after she was terminated, the Post reports. "I decided to become a kidney donor to my boss, and she took my heart," says Stevens, who probably has a great future as a blues singer ahead of her.
Brucia did not take Stevens's kidney because it wasn't a perfect match, but she did persuade her employee to give up her kidney so that she could move up the waiting list and get her organ from someone else. "I felt I was giving her life back,’’ Stevens tells the tabloid. “My kidney ended up going to St. Louis, Missouri, and hers came from San Francisco." But it seems that San Francisco kidney belonged to some miserable, ungrateful monster, because after the transplant Brucia allegedly had Stevens transferred to a car dealership 50 miles from her home, in a high-crime area that everyone referred to as "Siberia."
And when she was still recovering from the surgery, Brucia would call her wondering why she wasn't at work. "I told her I didn’t feel good,’’ Stevens recalls. “She said, ‘You can’t come and go as you please. People are going to think you’re getting special treatment.’" Yeah, just because you save the boss's life doesn't mean you can call out sick whenever the missing organ gets you down. Stevens soon consulted attorneys, and then she was fired after her counsel sent a letter to the company.
Brucia has not commented on the lawsuit, but the Post got a funny photo of her "outside her Babylon home Friday getting into a limo with plastic cups and what appeared to be a bottle of pink champagne." So with any luck, one of her current employees will get the chance to donate a liver soon!
Tagged
kidney
kidney donation
lawsuit
long island
organ donation
workplace
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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