Like A Phoenix: We Rise From The Ashes

Medicine has been the central part of my identity for nearly my entire adult life.

I’ve never had a season when I wasn’t working, when I wasn’t practicing, when I wasn’t caring for patients.

Healing wasn’t just my career — it was my calling.

Then I spoke up about patient safety.

And retaliation followed.

I was forced onto leave I didn’t ask for and didn’t want.

My ability to practice medicine — the very thing that gave my life meaning — was taken from me.

The people who retaliated thought they were sidelining me.

Instead, they gave me something I didn’t ask for:

Time.

Time away from the work that fueled me.

Time away from my patients.

Time alone with the silence they created — a silence meant to break me.

What They Didn’t Expect

With all that time, all I could do was channel the energy they believed they had stripped away.

At first, my fight lived in the workers’ compensation portal.

I uploaded filings, told the truth, and dragged — with precision — the people who tried to silence me.

When Sun Life wouldn’t pay disability benefits consistently, I realized something:

They were counting on me to stay quiet.

So I went public.

Not because I wanted to — but because I needed to.

Because it was survival.

And what I found shocked me.

My story wasn’t unique.

In fact, in the landscape of workplace and institutional retaliation, my story was mild compared to what others had endured.

And the doctor in me — the healer in me — could not just stand by and watch.

The Early Sparks of Advocacy

So I started small.

I made a Twitter channel called Retaliation Help.

Whenever someone posted about experiencing retaliation, I left a message:

You are seen.

You are heard.

You are not alone.

Then I created a Retaliation Help Reddit group — a place for survivors to gather when the world tried to isolate them.

But as more stories came in, one truth became undeniable:

Retaliation is systemic.

Employers aren’t acting alone.

Insurers, corporate counsel, tribunals, and even the media form a collective ecosystem that silences whistleblowers and punishes those who speak up.

And I realized something else:

Traditional media cannot be trusted to tell these stories.

Not honestly.

Not consistently.

Not without filtering the truth to protect institutions.

So I said:

Fine. I’ll be my own media.

The Birth of the Phoenix Advocacy Network

That decision — born out of necessity — became the spark that lit the phoenix.

Today, we are in our infancy stage:

• A YouTube channel

• A growing social media footprint

• An online newspaper on the way

• A mission to build an independent journalism platform focused on retaliation, disability rights, and accountability

  
  

I’m working toward press credentials.

One day, I hope Phoenix Advocacy Network grows into a company with a nonprofit arm providing legal support for survivors of retaliation.

Because the world needs a place where the silenced can speak.

Returning to Medicine — Changed Forever

I am back practicing medicine now.

But I can’t unsee what I’ve seen.

And I can’t unhear the stories I’ve heard.

The truth is, I’ve always been this way.

If you asked my mama or my daddy, they’d tell you their girl came out loud — always fighting, always speaking against injustice.

Yes, the easy path would have been staying quiet.

Signing an NDA.

Taking the check.

Walking away.

But I would never sleep again if I chose silence over truth.

So Instead, We Rise

We rise from the retaliation.

We rise from the silencing.

We rise from the ashes of what they tried to take away.

This is why the Phoenix Advocacy Network must exist.

Because when institutions try to burn us down, we do not disappear.

A phoenix rises from the ashes.

And so do we.