Terminated Worker Receives $2.2M Jury Award

An ultrasound technician will receive $2.2 million thanks to an Oct. 19 jury verdict that found her former employer fired her because she filed a workers’ compensation claim. The technician, Susan Boutwell, was informed a week before getting surgery for a work-related injury that she was going to be permanently replaced and wouldn’t be able to return to work with restrictions.

Boutwell also claimed in her wrongful termination lawsuit against Siouxland Women’s Health Care that she was told she should file for unemployment benefits once she was cleared to work since she would no longer have a job, according to the Bellevue Herald-Leader. She’d been employed at the facility for 28 years before her firing.

Comp Claim Led to Firing

The jury found that Boutwell’s workers’ compensation claim was the determining factor in her firing. Boutwell will receive:

• $1 million in punitive damages
• $500,000 for past emotional pain and suffering
• $250,000 for future emotional pain and suffering
• More than $160,000 in lost wages, and
• More than $347,000 in future lost wages.

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