Dear Mercy Hospital: No one should have to battle cancer while battling the legal system.

To our friends, family, colleagues,

If we haven’t caught up in a while, you should know that a lot has changed in our lives over the past year. We’ve kept mostly quiet about our struggles, but with the recent severe turn in Marcus’s health, we feel it’s time to share more publicly to keep those who care about us informed.

There’s no good way to say it.

Marcus Shields, my favorite human being on planet Earth, my best friend, confidant through all of life’s ups and downs, and most incredible dad to our two boys, has been diagnosed with a very rare form of Stage IV, Grade II, Neuroendocrine Lung Cancer.

This diagnosis comes at an incredibly difficult time, following recent job loss resulting from retaliation from speaking up against patient harm at Mercy Hospital OKC. You can read more about our story below.

A Year of Unprecedented Challenges

In May 2023, while serving as the Director of Ethics for the Western Region of Mercy Health System, I was drawn into the case of a woman named Ms. Tracy Chatmon, who underwent a diagnostic biopsy at Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and revealed lung cancer.

She was not informed of her cancer diagnosis by Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City for 532 days, during which time, her cancer tripled in size.

Although I wasn’t employed by Mercy at the time of her treatment and had no direct involvement in her care, my role as the Hospital Ethicist required me to provide a deposition on the ethical implications of withholding such critical health information.

The core question was this:

“Can a patient make informed decisions about their medical care without having their test results.”

The answer is unequivocally no, which I would guess you all understand, as would anyone with a fourth-grade education.

Required to testify about the hospital’s failure during the upcoming deposition, I chose to uphold my ethical duty against immense pressure from hospital representatives.

My commitment to transparency resulted in severe personal and professional retaliation. I suffered derogatory labels (i.e., branding me a “plaintiffs’ whore”), experienced threats from hospital leadership, and ultimately required a forced health-related leave of absence in August 2023.

The fallout was devastating — I lost my job, my professional standing, and suffered significant health declines. Moreover, I was ineligible for disability benefits and workers’ compensation due to policy exclusions on employer harm and resulting emotional injury, leading to the depletion of the entirety of our emergency and retirement savings.

Hoping for a fresh start, we made the difficult decision to move to Houston, Texas, after I was offered a faculty position at MD Anderson Cancer Center. However, once the center learned about my actions and its impact on my health, they began advertising to hire for a new position, and ultimately rescinded my employment offer, leading to a loss of $40,000 in promised reimbursement for moving expenses and sign on bonuses, leaving us responsible for the debt we’d incurred to move.

As our family sought legal remedy, we discovered we had very little recourse, as Mercy Hospital was protected under something called the “ministerial exception,” which exempts religious institutions from certain civil employment laws.

“MERCY HEALTH MINISTRY WAS FORMED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CANONICAL STATUTES AND IS AN ENTITY FOR CANON LAW PURPOSES ONLY, AS IT IS NOT INCORPORATED UNDER THE CIVIL LAWS OF ANY STATE.”

This barrier prevented any meaningful legal recourse, costing us more than $50,000 in legal fees without resolution.

Mercy appeared to acknowledge their misconduct in every way:

• The President of the who made the threats was encouraged to step down from his role.
• The Attorney who participated in the defamation was taken off the case and asked to leave his firm.
• A new Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer was announced, with a press release noting increased commitment to “integrity, ethics, and compliance.”

But despite this acknowledgement of harm, they continued to ignore the substantial financial and personal consequences to our family.

We believe this is due to their knowledge of our limited avenues for holding them accountable (read more, here).

Amidst our legal battles and financial struggles, we also lost our anticipated insurance coverage through MD Anderson. Three days later, our family came down with what we thought was a viral illness. All of us recovered from this illness, however, Marcus’s symptoms persisted through late May. At the end of the month, his face began to swell, and we noticed the development of several other symptoms that made us question if he had developed Cushing’s Disease related to the viral illness.

On June 5, 2024, Marcus began to experience significant disorientation and malaise after running errands with our sons. We attempted to visit the emergency room that night but were told he should drive himself to a different facility due to a belief that his disorientation was the result of mental health concerns. Despite advocating that he had never experienced paranoia or delusions, the provider declined to rule out physical health symptoms, noting that this work up should be conducted at hospital more equipped to manage mental illness.

We returned home for the night, however, his disorientation rapidly progressed and he was ultimately admitted to the hospital on June 6, 2024 with multifocal pneumonia, severe sepsis, and metabolic encephalopathy.

Marcus, a previously healthy 30-year-old, with no prior family history of cancer and no personal history of smoking, underwent multiple tests to identify how he had become so ill.

The results were shocking: his imaging revealed “innumerable” nodules in his left lung. Tragically, he required a CT Guided, Percutaneous Biopsy to determine the cause.

In case the cruel irony is lost on you, this is the exact procedure that Ms. Chatmon had undergone at Mercy Hospital OKC.

On June 22, 2024, Marcus was diagnosed with a rare, rapidly progressing form of neuroendocrine lung cancer. Adding to our ordeal, the Houston hospital, much like Mercy years before, failed to promptly communicate these critical biopsy results to our family.

This exceptionally cruel twist of fate has not only intensified our call for accountability and change within healthcare but has also underscored the urgent need for community support as we navigate the difficult road ahead.

HOW YOU CAN HELP.

If the chances of developing such a rare type of cancer are less than one in a million, then the chance of such a diagnosis coming directly following a job loss for speaking up for another with lung cancer has got to be near to one in a billion.

The last few weeks, we have fumbled our way through the stages of grief. We cannot make any sense of this.

Why this? Why us? Why now?

This is a story we never would have written for ourselves. And I won’t begin to try to make some meaning out of something that seems so senseless. But the steady cry of our hearts remains the same…

God, would you make something good of this?

Share Our Story.

We’re committed to using our story to drive change and protect others from similar harm. This is where you come in. We are asking you to share our story with others. Every share extends our reach and increases the potential support and brings awareness to make change.

What We Believe:

• Absolute Accountability: No one should have to battle cancer while battling the legal system. Healthcare systems must not be allowed to shield their misconduct. Acknowledging faults privately but contesting them in public courts undermines justice and prolongs the suffering of affected families. This dishonest practice must end. This can only happen through bringing these stories to the public light.
• Patient Rights Upheld: Timely and accurate communication of medical results is a fundamental patient right. Hospitals must ensure transparency and immediate rectification of any communication failures. The right to know is a right to life. When failures happen, they should be admitted, and timely steps should be taken to mitigate the harm.
• Ending ‘At-Will’ Employment for Healthcare Workers: Real protection for healthcare workers goes beyond policy documents. The prevalent ‘at-will’ employment model allows employers to disguise retaliation, threatening the safety and integrity of healthcare services. Your own safety in seeking medical care depends upon your willingness to advocate for the job protections of those who care for you.
• Universal Protection: All employees, regardless of their workplace or the religious affiliation of their employer, deserve robust protections against unfair treatment and discrimination. Catholic health systems, leveraging tax-exempt status through their religious affiliation, must genuinely embody their declared ethical standards, including social responsibility. This means that Catholic healthcare ministries must not yield religious freedom as a weapon against those they employ.

We thank you in advance for sharing our story, helping us bridge the gap financially, and for standing in our corner.

If you are compelled to support us further, you can find us here:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shields-strong

“The endurance of darkness is preparation for great light.” - St. John of the Cross

#ShieldsStrong