For two years while she worked as a physician’s assistant in a California hospital, Ani Chopourian said there had been at least 18 incidents of vile workplace harassment from co-workers, including a doctor who would tell her each morning that he was horny.
Recently, the 45-year-old woman’s case was heard in a California courtroom, with a jury awarding her $168 million in damages, which is believed to be the largest workplace harassment/discrimination verdict in U.S. history, according to a story in The Los Angeles Times.
The mental abuse was widespread, according to the story, from a “bullying surgeon who once stabbed her with a needle and broke the ribs of an anesthetized heart patient in a fit of rage” to another who “would call her ’stupid chick’ in the operating room and made disparaging remarks about her Armenian heritage, asking if she had joined Al Qaeda.”
The hospital countered her lawsuit by arguing that it was the victim herself who was “guilty of professional misconduct, which was why they fired her and tried to deny her unemployment benefits,” according to the story. The jury, however, sided with the plaintiff and her claims.
The jury awarded her $125 million in punitive damages and $42.7 million for lost wages and mental anguish.
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