By PAVEL BAILEY
Tribune Staff Reporter
pbailey@tribunemedia.net
A SENIOR Family Guardian vice president testified on Friday that they denied Alana Major’s request to work from home during a difficult pregnancy because she didn’t get back to them with further information from her doctor.
Mrs Major, who was a senior executive at the company, is suing her former employer on the basis that the office work stress contributed to her miscarriage in 2019.
Her doctor had recommended she work from home because of her high-risk pregnancy.
She miscarried her son, Che Karson Major, on July 31, 2019.
Dr Kerry Higgs said that she received a letter from Mrs Major’s OBGYN recommending she take bed rest if it were agreeable to both parties.
After receiving this email, Dr Higgs responded to Mrs Major on June 27, 2019 requesting further information from the plaintiff’s doctor. She told the court that the company wanted to clarify what degree of bed rest the doctor recommended and how both parties should move forward.
In Mrs Major’s earlier testimony she indicated that the company disregarded her request to work remotely and asked for additional information from her physician to approve sick leave instead.
Dr Higgs said that the use of the words “bed rest” in Mrs Major’s doctor’s letter was a source of confusion to the company. The VP said that she did not anticipate that the plaintiff would not be forthcoming with the requested information.
When questioned by Sharon Wilson, KC, who represents Mrs Major, Dr Higgs agreed that coming in to a regular 9 to 5 would not be considered bed rest. However, she disagreed that Family Guardian was not compliant with Mrs Major’s doctor’s recommendation despite the plaintiff continuing to come to work up to the day of her miscarriage.
Mrs Wilson asked Dr Higgs if she considered a pregnant woman, as sick as the doctor said she was, a difficult question. While Dr Higgs said that a woman who is pregnant isn’t sick there are situations where a pregnant woman may be sick.
Dr Higgs said that she found out that Mrs Major miscarried the following day and that the plaintiff had to be airlifted for treatment in the US. She recalls that she reached out to Mrs Major’s husband in the immediate aftermath and he sounded distraught. However, she was unable to reach Mrs Major, as she texted, but never got a response from her.
Dr Higgs strongly disagreed with Mrs Wilson’s suggestion that the company was insensitive to the demands put on Mrs Major as the sole senior manager of their Bahama Health division. She also disagreed that their actions were detrimental to the plaintiff’s pregnancy and that it was this same insensitivity that led to the demise of the plaintiff’s child.
Responding to a question from Robert Adams, the company’s lawyer, Dr Higgs said that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic Family Guardian had no policy on remote work.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.