Remember the White Michigan Father, who requested No Black Nursing Staff for his baby? Well looks like the Black Nurses Sued and got paid on some racial thing.

Michigan man refuses to let black nurse touch newborn     Posted: 02/22/2013
DETROIT - It's been called one of medicine's "open secrets" -- allowing patients to refuse treatment by a doctor or nurse of another race.  In the latest example, a white man with a swastika tattoo insisted that black nurses not be allowed to touch his newborn. That led several black nurses to sue the Michigan hospital, claiming it bowed to his illegal demands, and a rapid settlement in one of their lawsuits.

The Michigan cases are among several lawsuits filed in recent years that highlight this seldom-discussed issue, which quietly persists almost 60 years after the start of the civil rights movement.

The American Medical Association's ethics code bars doctors from refusing to treat people based on race, gender and other criteria, but there are no specific policies for handling race-based requests from patients.

"In general, I don't think honoring prejudicial preferences ... is morally justifiable" for a health care organization, said Dr. Susan Goold, a University of Michigan professor of internal medicine and public health. "That said, you can't cure bigotry ... There may be times when grudgingly acceding to a patient's strongly held preferences is morally OK."
Those times could include patients who have been so traumatized -- by rape or combat, for instance -- that accommodating their request would be preferable to forcing on them a caregiver whose mere presence might aggravate the situation, she said.
Tonya Battle, a 25-year nurse at Flint's Hurley Medical Center, filed the first lawsuit last month against the hospital and a nursing manager, claiming a note posted on an assignment clipboard read, "No African-American nurse to take care of baby." She says the note was later removed but black nurses weren't assigned to care for the baby for about a month because of their race.

That case, which was recently joined by three other nurses, was settled this week. Hospital officials said in a statement Friday that the incident was "triggered by conduct which is not consistent with Hurley's policies" and that it "fundamentally opposes racial discrimination."

No details about the settlement were released.Read more: 

Mich hospital sued for agreeing to racist’s demand that no black nurses treat his baby   FEBRUARY 18, 2013 

Tonya Battle is a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan. Last year on Halloween, she was caring for a baby in the NICU unit. The baby’s father, approached her, and asked to see her supervisor. What happened next is right out of the early part of the 20th Century racist south.

The man demanded that no African American nurses care for his baby. Not only that, the hospital complied. They are now being sued by Tonya Battle.

According to the complaint, which you can read HERE (pdf), the man rolled up his sleeve when he spoke to Battle’s supervisor, showing a tattoo that is believed to be a swastika. Battle, who is African American, and all other African American nurses where then prohibited from treating this racist’s sick baby. The assignment clipboard, according to the complaint, had a note prominently displayed reading, “NO AFRICAN AMERICAN NURSE TO TAKE CARE OF BABY”.

Although Hurley Medical Center’s lawyer told them they couldn’t do that, they continued to do so anyway for the month the baby was in their care.  Read more:

Black nurse awarded $110,000 because racist did not want black nurses to treat his baby        10/3/2013 by Amir Shaw

Tonya Battle received a cash settlement after enduring racism by a patient’s father and the hospital where she worked. According to MLive.com, Battle filed a lawsuit against Hurley Medical Center in Flint.

In Oct. 2012, a baby was rushed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. However, after the child’s racist father saw that Battle and other black nurses were caring for the baby, he went to supervisors demanding a change in staffing. The man told the white supervisor that he did not want any black nurses caring for his child and showed his Swastika tattoo.

The supervisors at the hospital agreed to the man’s request and replaced Battle and other black nurses with white nurses. Battle became infuriated by the incident and decided to sue to hospital for supporting the wishes of a racist.

Battle, who had been with the hospital since 1988, won a settlement and inspired the hospital to make staff members attend sensitivity training.
The other black nurses on duty settled for $41,250 each. ($750.00) source