Things like this sound vaguely familiar from our own past, as well as in other countries at other times, including Nazi Germany.  A Wyoming woman claims that Newcastle Hospital tried to have her involuntarily committed after she blew the whistle on what she says are alleged ethics and legal violations committed by Weston County Health Services.

Ethan Huff has the story:

A former employee of Newcastle Hospital in Wyoming says she was maliciously targeted by officials at the medical facility after she reported alleged ethics and legal violations while serving as its human resources go-to.

Amanda McDade of Upton is suing Weston County Health Services, which oversees Newcastle Hospital, in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming over the matter. She says the hospital is retaliating against her for voicing her concerns about what she saw.

According to McDade, Newcastle Hospital retaliated against her for whistleblowing by trying to have her involuntarily committed as if she had a mental illness. This alleged mental illness, the hospital claimed, caused McDade to develop anxiety, which in turn forced her to resign.

“The Defendant is a governmental entity under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act. Certainly, the government cannot threaten to strip us of our civil liberty and freedom when their illegality and ethics are called out through the proper process,” the lawsuit states.

“To silence the voice of those who speak against you and threaten to place them in an involuntary mental health hold, as a government employer, is nothing that should ever occur in the free United States of America.”

No good deed goes unpunished

McDade worked for Weston County Health Services from June 11, 2019, to Oct. 14, 2021. Not long after being hired, she became a human resources generalist with full access to employee records, payroll, timekeeping and operation documentation.

“During the course of her employment, the Plaintiff raised concerns of money mismanagement, illegality and ethics through the proper chain of command,” the suit further states.

“Instead of this being remedied, Plaintiff was retaliated against and subjected to a hostile work environment.”

This “proper chain of command” involved McDade reporting the issues she identified as a whistleblower through the proper process, including by taking the matter to the organization’s then-president of the Board of Trustees.

Instead of taking McDade’s matter seriously, the hospital asked her to change records and cover up their “errors.” McDade found this request to be “unethical and likely illegal,” and she reportedly did not comply with it.

This is around the time when Newcastle Hospital became “malevolent” against McDade, forcing her into a Title 25 mental health hold. This is Wyoming’s way of involuntarily committing a dangerous and mentally ill person against his or her will.

On Oct. 14, 2021, the final day of McDade’s employment at Newcastle Hospital, a nurse called McDade at work to arrange a meeting for McDade’s own treating physician, Dr. Sara Thurgood, to discuss medication and concerns about medication.

McDade was confused about the request, seeing as how she never made any appointment with Dr. Thurgood and had no medication concerns. Immediately upon hanging up, McDade hung up the phone and started to suffer what sounds like a panic attack with her chest tightening and breath growing short.

A few hours later, Dr. Thurgood marched into McDade’s office in person, prompting McDade to try to explain that there must have been some sort of mistake.

“Well, that is not what [the nurse] told me,” is how Dr. Thurgood reportedly responded. “Do you mind if I close these doors in your office so that we can have a confidential conversation with me here as your doctor first and foremost?”

McDade would record the conversation that ensued, which involved accusations from upper management that she was mentally ill and in need of care. McDade would challenge this by telling Dr. Thurgood that officials at Newcastle Hospital were not concerned for her, but instead were “concerned in saving their own [expletive] right now.”

Article posted with permission from Sons of Liberty Media