A nurse diagnosed with a COVID-19 vaccine injury is headed to trial in a case against her former employer.
Danielle Baker, 43, is trying to compel Ohio’s Hospice Inc. to pay worker’s compensation for her COVID-19 vaccine injury, suffered after she went to get vaccinated in June 2021 because she believed the company would mandate vaccination.
A state officer rejected the claim, finding that Baker did not show her injury came “in the course of and arising out of her employment” because Ohio’s Hospice had not yet mandated vaccination. The Ohio Industrial Commission refused to hear the appeal.
But a judge intervened in May, scheduling a trial date that sets up the possibility a jury could side with the nurse.
“It was a win,” Baker told The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD, recounting when she learned of the development. “I cried. We’ve been fighting this for a while.”
New Developments
Baker said she knew Ohio’s Hospice would eventually mandate vaccination for employment—it did so in August 2021—and she did not want to lose her job, so she went to get Pfizer’s shot.Baker quickly began experiencing symptoms such as severe back pain and went to the hospital. She eventually suffered loss of feeling in her extremities and was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, or spinal cord inflammation. Multiple doctors have assessed that the condition was caused by the vaccine.
Ohio’s Hospice Inc., which did not respond to requests for comment, has said in court filings that Baker’s complaint was barred by statutes of limitations and that she has failed to “declare an injurious event that occurred at work and/or a diagnosis for any such event that occurred at work.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, has also opposed the legal action, arguing no valid claim has been offered.
But Miami County Common Pleas Judge Jeannine Pratt disagreed, at least for now. The judge has scheduled a trial that would start on Jan. 31, 2024, if the case is not thrown out or settled.
Baker said she is not inclined to accept a settlement.
“Unless they give something that I can’t refuse I plan on taking it all the way,” Baker told NTD.
James Gardner, a lawyer representing the nurse, said via email that “most cases are resolved, but the diverse positions taken by the parties in this case might make settlement difficult.”
Nurse for 20 Years
Baker was a nurse for 20 years, primarily working in hospice care. She worked for 17 years at Ohio’s Hospice.After suffering the vaccine injury, she went on short-term disability, which eventually turned into long-term disability.
Ohio’s Hospice ultimately said that there were no reasonable accommodations that could be made, so Baker was let go, though she was deemed eligible to rejoin the company at a later date.
Baker has continued receiving disability payments as she’s unable to work because of her symptoms.
Before receiving the vaccine, “I was actually the healthiest I had been,” Baker told NTD. “I was the mom that worked nine to five and came home and cooked and cleaned. We were just always on the go.”
Nowadays, Baker’s husband does most of the caregiving. In addition to the children, Baker needs a lot of care.
Dr. Elizabeth Laffay is one of the doctors who examined Baker.
Laffay wrote in one note, “Given the timing of her symptom onset and her vaccination administrations, it is very reasonable to conclude that she is now primarily suffering from vaccine injury.”
“The type of injuries that Mrs. Baker is experiencing are well-documented to be adverse reactions to the C19 injections,” the doctor added.
Emails
Baker’s former employer promoted vaccination heavily, with one official in a March 2021 message to employees claiming the vaccines were “highly effective” and could “obliterate” COVID-19.The official also said that vaccinated people were showing “little ability to transmit the virus.”
Ohio’s Hospice President Amy Wagner wrote in another message in May 2021 that “we need to continue to be very proactive with the vaccine to work toward the ‘herd immunity’ effect that will help prevent rampant spread of COVID-19.” She claimed that herd immunity would be reached when 75 percent of the population had immunity to COVID-19, even though the vaccines do not prevent infection or transmission.
“If you haven’t received the vaccine, you should ... schedule a time to do so,” Wager said. “We strongly encourage 100% of our teammates to receive a vaccination,” even if they had recovered from COVID-19,
If that goal was met, each employee would receive $100. Each worker who presented proof of vaccination was also given $100, and all vaccinated employees were eligible for a $5,000 bonus, five of which would be given.
The message also said the company would discontinue the paid days off it had been providing for issues related to COVID-19 symptoms and quarantine or vaccine symptoms.
In a third message, CEO Kent Anderson said that workers had a “moral imperative” to protect patients and colleagues and that “the science of the vaccine is compelling and irrefutable.”
Baker believed the messages signaled that shots would soon be mandated, and went to get a vaccine in order to keep her job.
Ohio’s Hospice, which announced its mandate in August 2021, has said it would have to pay Baker if she wins her case because the hospital opted out of the workers’ compensation pay-in.
“No one should ever be coerced, bribed, threatened and/or mandated to have, a medical procedure done for the benefit of their employer,” Baker said in an emailed statement. “I proudly worked for Ohio’s Hospice for 17 years, never imagining that this agency that profits up to $49 million a year would turn their back on me when I needed them the most. Instead, they have left me and my family in financial ruins. This is just the tip of the iceberg, and we plan on flipping it upside down by setting precedent for others when we rightfully win this case.”
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