A former Cedars-Sinai Medical Center registered nurse has reached a settlement in her lawsuit against the hospital in which she alleged she was wrongfully terminated in 2022 for not getting a mandatory coronavirus shot, which she objected to on medical grounds.
An attorney for 37-year-old Dorota Mroczkowska filed court papers on Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jon R. Takasugi informing him of the accord, but no terms were divulged. The two sides had previously agreed to submit the case to arbitration and the judge signed an order directing them to proceed.
According to her suit, Mroczkowska was hired in October 2018 and her duties included providing patient care, administering medications, monitoring patient conditions and maintaining medical records. In 2021, she contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized for two weeks.
Mroczkowska had an adverse reaction to the original COVID-19 vaccine, requiring an emergency room visit and two days off, the suit stated. In 2022, Cedars-Sinai required employees to take a COVID-19 booster shot. At that time, Mroczkowska experienced breast pain and her doctor told her that the booster shot could impact the results of the mammogram he ordered for her, according to her suit.
Facing a May 3, 2022, time limit to get a coronavirus injection or be fired, Mroczkowska turned in a medical exemption request signed by her doctor four days before then, but a hospital committee terminated her anyway on the deadline day, the suit stated.
Eight days later, Mroczkowska received approval for her medical exemption from the hospital committee, but was told it was too late because she had already been terminated, according to her suit brought in August 2024.
“Plaintiff made multiple attempts to understand the reasons for her termination, but received conflicting information,” the suit stated.
Mroczkowska believes that many of her colleagues with medical conditions faced similar situations, the suit further stated.