The opening statements and presentation of evidence are set for 10am PST today in a lawsuit involving claims that a medical doctor and his corporation retaliated against a former employee, Yamin Shwe, after she refused to be concurrently on-call at two different hospitals—on the basis that it would have been against the law and risked jeopardising patient lives.
That is according to a press release from Barta Law PC, a law firm specialising in the representation of physicians and other healthcare providers, which filed the case* in Department 14 of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
In this lawsuit, endovascular neurointerventionist Yamin Shwe (New York, USA) accuses radiologist Kok-Chye Tan (Monterey Park, USA) and KC Tan MD Medical Corporation of violating California’s whistleblower and retaliation statutes** by retaliating and filing a lawsuit against Shwe—and terminating her—after she refused to participate in “an activity that violates a local rule and regulation”.
Shwe was allegedly requested to be concurrently on-call at a comprehensive stroke centre (CSC) and another hospital.
According to the release, the Los Angeles County Department of Health’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ‘Stroke Receiving Standard’ (Reference No. 322) requires all CSCs to “have a dedicated on-call endovascular neurointerventionalist [like Shwe], and neurologist, who cannot be concurrently on-call at any other hospital or specialty service”.
The lawsuit explains that, based on the mantra that ‘Time is Brain’—meaning stroke patients need emergent and timely treatment—Shwe refused when Tan was going to place her concurrently on-call without backup at Methodist Hospital of Southern California, now University of Southern California (USC) Arcadia Hospital (Arcadia, USA), and Garfield Medical Center (Monterey Park, USA).
With this lawsuit having first been filed on 5 June 2020, jury selection for the trial was completed on 30 March 2023.
Shwe has completed fellowships in Vascular Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Houston, USA) and in interventional neuroradiology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA; Los Angeles, USA) in order to enable her to provide life-saving treatments for stroke patients, the release adds.
*Los Angeles Case No. 20STCV21289
**Labor Code section 1102.5 and Business & Professions Code section 2056
