My previous post was about my termination however now my partner was terminated the very next day.
My partner (produce manager at a grocery store in Maryland) slipped and hurt his knee badly at work before the end of his shift (thursday, March 27). At 6:30pm he called work and asked someone at the office to contact the assistant manager of the department to come in early to cover his shift in case his knee didn't improve.
At 3:30am the next day (Friday, March 28) he called and spoke with the manager on duty and told him that he was not able to come in that day due to his knee. We then went to the emergency room to have the knee looked at. Doctors were unable to determine whether his patella tendon was ruptured or not due to excessive swelling so they gave him a note excusing him from work until tuesday, April 1st so they could do an MRI to determine the excess of his injury. He was then given 2 pills for the pain and was prescribed oxycontin and was told to take 2 when he got home.
After taking him back home I went in to work and handed the store manager his doctor's note and explained what had happened. I then went on to work in my department. Later on in the day I was telling a co-worker that I tried calling home to check in on my partner and suspected that he was knocked out from the pain killers because he did not answer. Just as I was saying that the store manager interrupted and said that he too just tried calling to check on his condition and suspected that I was right in saying he was probably knocked out.
On Monday my partner had gone in to work to fill out workman's comp. He was called into the office and was told that he was fired due to failure to inform management of what was going on with his condition, however, they did fill out workman's comp. We thought the doctor's note was sufficient...wouldn't any further information regarding his condition protected under HIPPA?
Today was tuesday and he was supposed to get an MRI, but could not because workman's comp had not been processed yet and since today is the 1st of the month his health insurance through work is no longer active.
Was this wrongful termination? Will workman's comp cover only his health expenses? In case this leads to surgery he is not able to start looking for new employment...will workman's comp pay him for the days until he gets a doctors release?

