Fired Florida Doctor Loses $2.9 Million Award, Must Redo Trial

Adventist Health System’s Florida Hospital will get a new trial on whether it fired a surgeon for threatening to blow the whistle on its alleged failure to take seriously his reports of dangerous practices by the head of its new heart-lung transplant institute, a state appeals court ruled.

The trial judge instructed the jury on the incorrect standard for proving retaliation under the Florida Private Whistle Blower Act, the Florida Court of the Appeal, Fifth District, said. The jury awarded Dr. Ahmed Chaudhry $2.85 million in damages after finding his complaints about, and threats to, report Dr. Hartmuth Bittner motivated ...