I Asked for Therapy — They Gave Me Aggressive Litigators

Bon Secours Mercy Health:

“A Great Place to Work,”

If You Stay in Line and Silent

I suffered a near-violence event in my workplace.

I was struggling — visibly, humanly, medically.

When I tried to access the free mental-health services the hospital proudly advertises for its employees, my own administrators threatened me.

When I said I needed help, they heard liability.

So I did what the system tells you to do.

I filed a workers’ compensation claim — not for money, but for treatment.

I wanted therapy so I could heal and return to work.

I wanted a safe clinic environment — not one that had already broken me.

Instead of help, they sent lawyers.

When Care Becomes Confrontation

They answered a physician in crisis with subpoenas, denials, and deadlines.

On paper, they celebrate physician mental health.

In practice, they punished me for needing it.

Awards are easy.

Access to real care for physicians should be too.

They replaced care with cruelty and compassion with confrontation.

They turned my injury into their billable hours.

I asked for therapy.

They gave me litigation.

Then they called me litigious.

That’s the word institutions use to shame you for surviving.

How Institutions Punch

When a hospital system retaliates against a physician, their weapon isn’t a baseball bat — it’s lawyers.

Their punches come wrapped in subpoenas and cc’d to HR.

Their bruises don’t show up on skin; they show up in court dockets.

They’ve been beating me with the legal system for almost a year.

When they refused to let me return to work — and their insurer refused to pay me — I filed for unemployment.

Not because I wanted money.

Because I needed to live.

They changed their story repeatedly in those hearings.

Every path forward was blocked with more lawyers, more filings, more resistance.

They turned my recovery into a revolving courtroom.

The Escalation

And when I finally thought I might be able to move forward, they fired me.

Then they expanded my non-compete so broadly that I can’t even practice freely in the region.

Now they demand $150,000 — due in two weeks.

So I am forced to contemplate yet another courtroom: bankruptcy court.

If there were a court for moral bankruptcy, they would already have a judgment entered against them.

But I’m Still Here

Still standing.

Still speaking.

Still refusing to shut up.

Because what they call “litigious” —

I call alive.

Call to Action

If you are a healthcare worker who asked for help and received retaliation instead — you are not alone.

If you are a patient who believes physician mental health matters — speak up.

If you believe hospitals should treat injured doctors with care instead of counsel — demand accountability.

👉 Share this story.

👉 Support physician mental health protections.

👉 Visit PhoenixAdvocacyNetwork.com to access resources and connect with others navigating retaliation.

Because when institutions weaponize the legal system, the only antidote is light.

And I’m not turning it off.