MOUNDSVILLE – Before allegedly being wrongfully terminated, an Ohio County man says he was mistreated by Reynolds Memorial Hospital so much that it caused him severe medical issues.
David Henry and his wife Amy Henry filed their complaint July 16 in Marshall Circuit Court against Reynolds Memorial Hospital Inc., West Virginia University Hospitals Inc., West Virginia University Medical Corporation and Reynolds Memorial Foundation Inc.
Attorney Teresa Toriseva is representing the couple.
Toriseva
“Mr. Henry just wanted to go to work and do his job,” Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “He was a dedicated employee. The conduct he experienced on the job was appalling and illegal.
“Our client is grateful for the court system – the great equalizer between the powerful and the people – and he looks forward to having his story told in a courtroom.”
According to the complaint, David Henry is 59 years old and worked for the defendants for nearly seven years until he says he fired because of his age and physical disabilities.
“Henry endured continued discrimination and harassment by various employees of the defendants throughout most of his employment with the defendants,” the complaint states. “The defendants viewed the plaintiff as a ‘liability’ rather than an ‘asset.’ …
“Henry continued to show up every day and complete his job duties despite the defendants’ conduct. The unlawful treatment toward the plaintiff caused him to suffer severe health conditions that only worsened during his employment. The plaintiff is now severely disabled, and the trajectory of his life is permanently altered as a result of the defendants’ actions and inactions.”
Henry was hired in 2017 by Reynolds Memorial Hospital. He says he has more than 38 years of experience in facilities construction dealing with paint, drywall and construction. His original position was a facilities painter, and he says he was one of the oldest employees at the hospital.
In March 2020, he position was change to maintenance technician, but his duties were the same.
In August 2020, hospital Vice President Mike Ortiz ordered the completion of a new coffee shop be completed by the end of September 2020. Henry says he was ordered to finish the project in a shorter timeframe than would typically be required to finish the work.
“The stress associated with the shortened timeline caused the plaintiff to suffer multiple heart attacks,” the complaint states, adding that on September 29, 2020, Henry “had at least three heart attacks while at work due to the extreme stress he was under caused by the shortened timeline.”
Henry has had two open heart surgeries and 11 bypasses.
In 2021, Henry was placed under a heat restriction by a cardiologist based on his heart condition.
“After the plaintiff was placed under a heat restriction, the plaintiff’s managers and supervisors began to require that the plaintiff work in the boiler room,” the complaint states. “The working conditions in the boiler room are excessively hot. .. The temperature in the boiler room regularly exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The plaintiff was not certified to work in the boiler room. …
“The plaintiff, fearing negative employment action if he did not comply, complied with the defendants’ orders and worked in the boiler room while he was under a heat restriction from his physician. Consequently, the plaintiff passed out in the boiler room while laboring in the extreme heat.”
Henry was hospitalized for seven days following that incident.
On June 20, 2022, Henry says Ortiz told him to clock out and leave due to his health condition. Henry then was placed on FMLA leave about two months prior another heart surgery that required he miss several months of work.
He returned to work in December 2022 despite a heart doctor telling him he shouldn’t return until February 2023. While he was recovering, Henry says the hospital hired a new employee to replace him. And when he did return to work, Henry says most of the tools he had purchased himself were stolen or were being used by the new employee and others.
“Shortly after returning to work, the plaintiff was talking with management staff on break and another injured employee who was going to return to work was brought up and plaintiff overheard Dan Edgell say, ‘put [him] on afternoon shift because that is where they put people they want gone,’” the complaint states. “The plaintiff was then placed on afternoon shift despite his seniority level.”
Henry also says he applied for a position of facilities painter at sister facility Wheeling Hospital, but his application was denied for an alleged “lack of education.”
In May 2023, Henry’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist letter to the defendants ordering them to stop their unlawful discriminatory actions. But he says the defendants “simply ignored” the letter.
In June 2023, Henry had to take time off from work a second time because of a rotator cuff injury. When he was off, he says the defendants unlawfully reduced his accrued paid time off in the amount of about 216 hours. And on July 19, 2023, Henry says he was fired because he was out of work on workers’ compensation.
The next month, they called him back to work. He was rehired, but didn’t receive an hourly $4 pay increase as a construction specialist, which had happened to him previously as well.
In September, Henry again was told to leave work. An orthopedic surgeon order him not to use his right arm, and he soon was assigned to a job answering phones and directing calls.
In November, Henry was declared 100 percent disable because of his rotator cuff injury and was told he can’t lift more than one pound and can’t lift above his waist.
He says employees, including former supervisor Jim Miller, harassed him for working at the switchboard. Henry says he lodged several internal complaints about how Miller treated him, but the defendants took no action.
Henry says he can’t undergo more heart surgeries because of his deteriorated condition, which worsened after being forced to work in the boiler work and the heightened stress he experienced at work. He also says he can’t take prescribed medication for pain due to the severity of his condition, which prevents him from sleeping at night and deteriorates his health.
On November 30, Human Resources Director Cole Elliot, told Henry there were no jobs available to him based on his work restrictions. He says he was sent home without pay to wait for other jobs to become available.
He was offered two jobs in December, but the defendants then told him he could not work either of them because of injury. He eventually returned the switchboard job until February.
On February 1, Henry’s doctor lessened his work restrictions, but he was fired February 13.
“The defendants terminated the plaintiff’s employment and stated that it could not accommodate the plaintiff’s disability,” the complaint states. “After the plaintiff left work on February 13, 2024, but before he was able to drive home, the defendants called the plaintiff and offered him yet another job.
“The job that the defendants offered to the plaintiff was that of a dispatcher and earned less than half of what he made in the maintenance department.”
Henry accuses the defendants of disability discrimination and age discrimination, both violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act. He also accuses them of wrongful termination, unlawful retaliation, violations of the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act, conversion for the stolen tools, trespass to chattels and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His wife sues for loss of consortium.
The couple seeks compensatory damages, interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. They are being represented by Toriseva and Joshua Miller of Toriseva Law in Wheeling. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Jeffrey Kramer.
Marshall Circuit Court case number 24-C-63
