The $20M Verdict That Gave One Nurse Justice

A Colorado nurse has won a landmark discrimination case against one of the nation’s largest healthcare corporations, after a federal jury concluded she was targeted due to her race and then wrongfully blamed for a dying patient’s death and prosecuted for manslaughter.

In August 2025, a jury in Joppy v. HCA-HealthOne LLC et al found that The Medical Center of Aurora (TMCA), a Magnet-designated hospital owned by HCA Healthcare, discriminated and retaliated against registered nurse DonQuenick Joppy. The verdict: $20 million, including $15 million in punitive damages.
For Joppy, the win is more than personal. “Future generations need us to tell the truth,” she said. “There needs to be change in healthcare.”

A Pattern of Escalating Harassment

Joppy, a 39-year-old ICU nurse, began working at TMCA in 2017. Within a year, she said the work environment shifted sharply. The lawsuit described “numerous microaggressions and acts of harassment” from charge nurses who publicly berated her, questioned her competence, and scrutinized her for errors they overlooked in white colleagues.

One charge nurse, Michael Oleszczuk, allegedly made repeated comments questioning her critical thinking and organizational skills: remarks Joppy and her attorneys argued were rooted in longstanding stereotypes used to undermine Black professionals.

The hostility intensified while Joppy’s complaints to supervisors went unaddressed. Her attempts to transfer out of the ICU were blocked. Instead, on the very morning she was scheduled to interview for a new position, TMCA cancelled the interview and placed her on a Performance Improvement Plan filled with what she said were “unsubstantiated” claims from the same supervisors she had reported.

“The only thing I could’ve done differently was not be there,” Joppy told Yellow Scene Magazine.

In May 2019, the discrimination collided with a medical crisis.

A 94-year-old man arrived at TMCA in septic shock with multi-organ failure. Although he had a DNR order, the family consented to intubation and temporary life-support while deciding next steps. When the physician, Dr. Ahmad Alsaleem, told them the patient had little time left; they agreed on palliative care in the ICU.

TMCA was dangerously understaffed that night. Joppy, working alone with multiple high-acuity patients, was instructed to prepare the ICU and carry out the patient’s end-of-life transition. A respiratory therapist was unavailable, so Joppy asked for guidance and, according to the lawsuit, was walked through turning off the ventilator. Dr. Alsaleem later disconnected the machine, but failed to remove the intubation tube. Another nurse cuffed the tube before the patient died of natural causes, as confirmed by his death certificate: septic shock, pneumonia, bowel infarction.

Despite that, TMCA launched an investigation and fired Joppy. The hospital reported her to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which charged her with manslaughter, negligent death of an at-risk person, and neglect.

A year later, the state dropped all charges “in the interest of justice,” a phrase the Attorney General’s Office uses when it determines allegations cannot be supported. In effect, the state acknowledged there was no case.

“It was a consuming fire,” she said of the ordeal. 

What happened to Joppy is not an isolated incident, experts say.

Previous surveys found that Asian, Black, and Latino nurses are far more likely than white nurses to experience racial microaggressions. Six in ten nurses reported facing discrimination from colleagues; nine in ten said it harmed their mental health. Yet few felt safe reporting it.

The American Nurses Association reports similar findings: 63% of nurses say they have personally experienced racism at work. The ANA has acknowledged its own historical role in perpetuating racism “through past actions and omissions.”

Jerry Soucy, a friend of Joppy’s and longtime advocate for safe nursing practices, said the industry lacks accountability. “In discussions about nursing and racism, there are a lot of apologies, but there is no accountability,” he told Yellow Scene. “It is only through accountability that real change can happen.

HCA Healthcare, TMCA’s parent company, faces other discrimination allegations. In 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued HCA and two of its divisions for race, national origin, and age discrimination after an Asian American employee said a promotion was denied in favor of a younger, underqualified white candidate. When he complained, the EEOC alleges, HCA retaliated with write-ups, beratement, and eventual termination.

“If This Was Done to Me, What Would They Do to the Black Patients?”

On August 19, 2025, jurors ruled unanimously that TMCA’s treatment of Joppy constituted both racial discrimination and retaliation for protected complaints. They awarded $5 million for emotional distress, reputational damage, and suffering—and $15 million to punish what they determined were intentional, malicious actions taken with “reckless indifference” to her civil rights.

Joppy’s attorney, Jennifer Robinson, told reporters the size of the award reflects “the egregiousness of the hospital’s conduct.”

TMCA denies wrongdoing, calling the lawsuit “without merit” and characterizing Joppy as “a disgruntled former colleague.” After the verdict, HealthOne said it “strongly disagrees” and plans to appeal, insisting that “Ms. Joppy’s employment was terminated because of the actions she took, and those actions alone.”

Through it all, Joppy has insisted she bears no malice toward her former colleagues.

“I am not sharing this story to shame anyone,” she said.

But she is blunt about the cost of silence: “This country doesn’t believe racism is an issue,” she said. “If this was done to me, a registered nurse, what would they do to the Black patients?”

She says she never plans to leave nursing. “I’ll never stop being a nurse,” she said. But she refuses to pretend the system isn’t broken.

“I don’t want our children to be upset with us, because we did not do this [push for change] now, when we had the opportunity.

Jerry Soucy and Don Quenick Joppy, share a moment after securing legal victory. Photo originally shared on social media via Soucy’s LinkedIn profile

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