Christina Flores is suing her ex-employer plastic surgeon Dr. Ryan Neinstein alleging he made her work when she was constructive for COVID-19.
Robert Miller
An Higher East Facet plastic surgeon compelled a staffer to work all through her COVID-19 sickness — and even requested her to fudge her check outcomes so she may return to the workplace sooner, she alleges in a brand new lawsuit.
Christina Flores, 33, claims Dr. Ryan Nenistein — a board-certified plastic surgeon with greater than 40,000 followers on Instagram — didn’t care about her well being after she examined constructive in December 2020, instructing her to make money working from home at the same time as her signs worsened, based on the submitting in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom.
“On daily basis was fixed calls, texts, emails,” she informed The Submit. “He was relentless and the extra I attempted to work by means of it, it simply wasn’t adequate for him.”
The physician continued to place strain on Flores, and in the end allegedly requested her to “instantly use a nasal rinse and virus-killing nostril swabs with a purpose to generate a false-negative Covid check that might illegitimately justify her returning to the workplace,” the swimsuit fees.
When she ultimately got here again to the workplace, positioned inside Bergdorf Goodman, she felt she turned Neinstein’s “goal.”
“He will get away with it,” Flores stated. “He’s a plastic surgeon in Manhattan. He feels he has cash and energy.”
Flores, of Midtown, began working at Neinstein Plastic Surgical procedure because the non-surgical Aesthetic Apply Supervisor in November 2020, and examined constructive for the coronavirus only a month later, on Dec. 1.
As a substitute of giving her a while off as she battled the bug, Neinstein allegedly informed Flores to proceed working from dwelling, which she did as a result of she was “scared of shedding her job,” the submitting states.
“I had no selection however to abide by his command,” she informed The Submit.
Whereas her signs grew extra extreme — together with a affected by a excessive fever and complications — Flores’ boss texted her on Dec. 4 saying “[the office’s] voicemail doesn't work…I don’t care what you’re doing. I would like it mounted in subsequent quarter-hour,” the swimsuit claims.
That very same day Neinstein texted Flores, “I perceive you’re sick, however if you happen to can’t do your job I'll discover another person,” the court docket paperwork allege.
Flores continued to check constructive for the virus, and on Dec. 11 acquired a textual content from the physician saying: “Clearly we'd like managers in [the office] open to shut. Distant management isn't working,” based on the submitting.
On the identical time, Flores stated her private medical doctors informed her, “Your physique wants relaxation. That’s why you’re not therapeutic. That’s why you’re testing constructive.”
“[Neinstein] actually didn’t care about me or my well being,” she claimed.
The physician allegedly requested Flores on Dec. 21 to take the check that might have generated a bogus damaging end result — however she didn’t fulfill the request on the recommendation of one other doctor on the apply, based on the swimsuit.
“I can't consider he would need me to jeopardize placing not solely myself, the workers, however particularly the sufferers in danger by falsifying the COVID check,” Flores stated.
She lastly examined damaging on Dec. 25 and returned to work quickly after. However she alleges the physician handled her poorly when she got here again, and she or he stop on March 21, 2021.
“I returned again to work and I felt like was a goal for him,” Flores stated. “He handled me so poorly. He all the time talked right down to me. It was by no means adequate.
“I felt prefer it was retaliation as a result of I had day without work,” Flores added. “However I used to be working from dwelling. I by no means took the day without work.”
Flores famous that she had initially handed on a job supply at Neinstein’s apply, after he allegedly interviewed her within the working room whereas conducting liposuction on an unconscious affected person.
The workplace supervisor, who now works at a unique apply, stated she doesn’t need anybody else to undergo what she did with the physician and “how unethical he's.”
“How he interviewed me whereas a poor affected person was on the desk not conscious,” she stated. “And the way he handled me after I had COVID.”
Neinstein Plastic Surgical procedure filed its personal lawsuit in opposition to Flores in March 2020, alleging that she poached workers and purchasers from the apply.
Her lawyer Matthew Blit claims the swimsuit is frivolous and says he’s filed a movement to toss the case.
“This profit-hungry physician risked the lives of each worker and affected person whereas unlawfully discriminating in opposition to Ms. Flores,” Blit informed The Submit. “As a result of Ms. Flores bravely refused to pretend a covid check she was retaliated in opposition to in a clearly frivolous lawsuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars that might be instantly tossed by the court docket.”
“Ms. Flores’ final victory will function a deterrent to different scoundrels on the market that need to illegally jeopardize the well being and security of their purchasers and workers,” Blit stated.
Lawyer Steve Polyakov denied Flores’ allegations and stated his purchasers – the apply and Neinstein – “are devoted to the general well being and well-being of their workers and sufferers.
“Neinstein Plastic Surgical procedure, PLLC is an equal alternative employer. We take allegations of discrimination and harassment severely.”
“We deny all of Ms. Flores’s allegations of wrongdoing and sit up for the chance to determine an entire and factually correct account of the underlying occasions,” Polyakov stated.
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