My Employer Fired Me When I Collapsed On Camera And Told Me To Stop Going To The Doctor

Hi,

I have been dealing with an injury in my knee and ankle since January 2024, I also became ill with a DVT and pulmonary embolisms caused by the injuries. Diagnosis in Feb of the knee is a torn MCL and I just found out this Wednesday that I also have a torn meniscus which my original orthopedist very smugly denied me ever having, however second opinion doctor found it real quick.

Anyway, I started a job April 9th and have been going regularly. I had told them upon hiring I was experiencing health issues, and had a couple appointments on the books I still had fo attend to and provided dates. I also told them I could provide doctor notes if they wanted which they never confirmed or denied, so I did give them a couple along the way. With said appointments I would either go in a little late or start the day, leave and come back. For reference this only happened 3 times with my direct superiors approval each time.

I ended up in the ER Monday noght (5/6) as I was having severe pain and had also vomited from it in my ankle. A friend who’s an RN had sent me as she was concerned that I may have another DVT brewing as my ankle has never been accurately diagnosed or even examined correctly with imaging. After the second opinion I have a pending MRI. I did an overnight while waiting for results and was 10 minutes late to work, my manager was in the loop on this as well.

Cut to Thursday morning. I walked into work with severe pain and my knee gave out, on camera in the lobby. 4 superiors of the company came and made me sit down and asked what was going on so I gave them details and asked them to give me time for it to relax so I could make it to my desk. They physically refused and told me they would take care of my superior (who was screaming from her desk but would not come out from the office) and to go home and rest and call the owner of the company. I asked again to stay and they said no they would see me tomorrow and blocked me from going to my office. One of the 4 escorted me to my car and told me he’s been working there for 26 years and it would be ok and to call the owner on the way and he would discuss with her too. This whole episode was on camera which also have audio.

I called her and explained, her response was this:

“I can’t speak for everyone else but if you want a job you need to toughen up. Want to take some Advil? (Comorbidity with blood thinners). I have ankle and knee pain too. You also need to stop going to the doctor because it’s a scam and they’re just going to make you keep coming back. It is not like you’re 80 years old with chronic fibromyalgia. And you need to be wearing sneakers, this is a desk job there’s no reason why you can’t be there so get back in the office. . (I always do wear sneakers). “ EDIT TO ADD she said to toughen up if I wanted a job multiple times and not to be going to the ER as that is for EMERGENCIES which I don’t qualify for (every doctor I dealt with told me I made a good decision on coming in).

I tried to return to the office and was sent home again and subsequently fired.

Is this a discrimatinatiin case? My work was good despite minor learning curves with a system that was not user friendly.