Esther Garatie
The Dallas VA Medical Center has substantiated allegations that a nurse discriminated against a lesbian Marine veteran who sought mental health treatment, and the nurse will retire effective Saturday, according to a statement released by the hospital today.
The nurse, Lincy Pandithurai of Cedar Hill, had been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the hospital’s investigation into a complaint from 28-year-old Esther Garatie of Irving. Garatie, a former Marine lance corporal who was honorably discharged in 2006, said she sought treatment for severe depression and possible post-traumatic stress disorder — including thoughts of suicide — on Oct. 12.
Garatie alleges that during a two-hour tirade, Pandithurai told her she was living in sin and said that was the reason for her mental health issues. Garatie said the nurse advised her to accept Jesus and become straight.
Monica Smith, a spokeswoman for the VA Medical Center, said in a statement today that the hospital’s Administrative Investigative Board has completed its investigation.
“The board was able to substantiate material portions of the veteran’s claims,” Smith said. “VA North Texas Health Care System will continue to provide an environment where veterans can receive the physical and emotional healing that they desire and deserve. As such, we remain committed to respecting diversity and providing the best possible care to all veterans. Our commitment to equal rights remains strong as we practice our core values of integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect and excellence. Ms. Pandithurai will retire from federal service effective January 21, 2012.”
As of this afternoon, a Change.org petition calling for Pandithurai’s termination has almost 20,000 signatures. Garatie also filed a complaint with the Texas Board of Nursing.
Good for you, Dallas VA Medical Center! Thanks for doing the right thing! And thank YOU, Dallas Voice, for keeping the pressure on the VA throughout the investigation.
Good riddance, our veterans don’t deserve voodoo medicine.
Not sure I approve of this outcome. As a retiree, the recalcitrant nurse still receives retirement benefits. While it’s good that the nurse is being removed from service one way or another, I’m less enthusiastic about supporting a bigot during retirement with my tax dollars.
I agree with you Matt, while I’m glad she was removed, I don’t believe anyone who acts that way deserves to still receive all of the retirement benefits. She should have been summarily dismissed. I highly doubt this was the first time she’d ever acted like this, I can’t help but think of others she might have damaged.
That poor nurse, telling it “straight” to the perv and getting canned for it. Fine way to reward her years of service. At least she’ll get the benefits she honestly earned.
As for being “damaged”, the lezbo kinda came in that way.
Yep, one mistake means she deserves to lose retirement benefits that she spent years earning… that makes sense. let her retire in peace and let everyone move on.
Don’t you know there is nothing that Calamine lotion, Sayman’s salve, Aspirin, Band-Aid Bandages and Jesus can’t cure. She was just using modern medicine, they no longer bring in the Catholic Church and perform exorcisms at the VA medical center to cure you wicked gays and lesbians.
Lesbian life style is a perverted life style. Kudos to the nurse.
I am fortunate to live in a time where reasonable and rational decisions are made. This lady injecting her personal feelings regarding homosexuality into her treatment duties is a serious lapse in judgement, it is incongruent with the standards of care and I am glad she was removed. However, if she worked long enough to collect retirement benefits then she deserves them and they should be afforded to her. Let the lady retire in peace. Her views are inconsistent with the majority of people these days but Dallas has a lot of older, baptist, fire-and-brimstone type christians so I am not surprised this happened here.
All the patient had to do was say, I don’t want religious counseling, I want psychiatric help. If you can’t provide that, I will see somebody else. For the nurse to lose her job is totally ridiculous and just another sign of how far down the tube this country is going. The nurse just needed some counseling herself on what type of counseling she can provide her patients. If she then kept disobeying her orders, then okay, fire her. But for one mistake that could have been easily corrected? Ridiculous.
The nurse overstepped and let her religious beliefs interfere with the true mission here. Leave the religion at the VA to the chaplain please. The dismissal is more than justified but let the punishment fit the crime. Allowing her to retire after years of service (assuming this was the first complaint) is likewise justifiable.
They may want to dock her pay for the two hours she wasted that patient’s time and send her to anger management on her own dime… I mean really… a 2 hour tirade on “praying out the gay” seems like a lot of wasted energy there.
I just hope Ms. Garatie can get better and move on with enjoying HER life.
Kudos to Esther Garatie for pursuing this matter when she was presumably at one of the lowest moments of her life. The nurse’s 2 hour hate filled tirade with no medical content directed at a very vulnerable patient, that is gross malpractice
That the nurse was removed from duties is good. If there isn’t, there should be a rule that prevents staff from injecting their personal religious beliefs into the treatment. That she was allowed to retire with her benefits is also good, she had earned these previous to this incident.
As for the haters that have commented here, how do you decide where to draw the line and those on the other side of the line do not deserve full equal rights as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights? We aren’t asking you to feel the same as us, we want you to acknowledge that we have rights just like you. The same rights, the same duties. This marine fought in our armed forces, she fought to insure our freedoms and rights were not denied us in any way. But you would have us believe that she isn’t allowed to share in those rights? Shame on you!
StraightShooter and AJ are ignorant. Homsexuality is one of two sexual orientaions. Normal and natural.
Jeffery Weber’s point is correct however while homosexuality is natural it isn’t entirely correct to say it’s normal. Many years of research have shown us that only 5 to 6% of all populations are homosexual which is a lot less than the norm.
Regardless of someone’s definition of normal homosexuals deserve respect and professional treatment in the VA hospital.