Plainfield, Ind.—
Brenda Chaney used to work in an office setting, but in 2006 she decided to become a certified nursing assistant."My father got real sick and once my father got sick, he had to go into a nursing home," Chaney recalls. "And I'd seen the care he wasn't getting that I knew I could give him."
And so she gave that care to patients at Plainfield Healthcare Center. With the exception of at least one -- one who she said asked not to get treatment from her because she's African American, even after the patient had fallen and couldn't get up.
"It took me five or six minutes walking around trying to find somebody white to go in her room to help her," Chaney said.
The racial issue became part of a four-year legal battle that could change how nursing homes across the country administer care to patients. Her attorney has argued the push to elevate patient rights has led to a policy of discrimination.
"The whole idea that privacy rights based on race would be a reason that you'd have this kind of segregated job assignment," said Denise LaRue.
Chaney was later fired, not for that, but for allegedly using profanity with another patient. Chaney denies that, and believes her termination was racially motivated.
Janet McSharar, the attorney representing the nursing home, argues the termination was not wrongful and adds the "no African-American caregiver" patient preference was put on a schedule of instructions for the nursing staff to honor the patient's request... and "to shield them from any notion that they would be subjected to a hostile work environment," she said.
"There are a number of ways the facility could have addressed that if their concern was truly protecting the CNA from any type of abuse from the resident."
For now, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed, sending the case back to district court where it may get decided in a trial next spring.
"We're all one person, we all do the same thing alike," Chaney said. "So maybe this can help open doors and eliminate the crap that goes on in places like that."
