Physician Awarded $1.5 Million New York City National Origin Discrimination Law Office

Wahid v. Brooklyn-Caledonian Hospital

National Origin Discrimination

Bangladesh-Born Physician Awarded
$1.5 Million In National Origin Bias Case

NEW YORK, NY -- A Brooklyn, New York jury has awarded $1.5 million in damages to a Bangladesh-born physician who in 1986 was denied admittance to the residency training program of Brooklyn-Caledonian Hospital because of his national origin. Wahid v. Brooklyn Caledonian Hospital, Civil Court of the City of New York, Index No. 5292/97 (verdict 8/8/00).

Nurul Wahid, a physician educated and trained in Bangladesh who emigrated to the United States in 1983, applied to the residency training program in internal medicine at the Brooklyn Caledonian Hospital in 1985 and 1986.

Although the Hospital claimed that Dr. Wahid was not as qualified as the applicants who won one of the 20 places in the 1986 training program, Dr. Wahid’s test scores were better than a majority of the successful applicants, Dr. Wahid had already received his medical license in Massachusetts unlike most other applicants, and Dr. Wahid’s work was deemed good to excellent by the Chief and Deputy Chief of the Hospital’s Department of Hematology/Oncology each of whom wrote positive recommendations on Dr. Wahid’s behalf. Although the applicant pool for the program consisted of a majority of Asian/Pacific Islanders throughout the mid-1980s, only one Asian/Pacific Islander won admission to the program in 1986, unlike prior years when no less than 5 places were awarded to Asian/Pacific Islanders. After Dr. Wahid filed suit in 1986, the Hospital accepted a majority of Asian/Pacific Islanders into the program in 1987 and 1988, the last year for which data was available.

At trial, the Hospital’s former Chief of Medicine, Sheldon Bleicher, M.D., who was responsible for the final admission decision, could not explain why Dr. Wahid was not as well qualified as the other candidates, and admitted that the Hospital had violated its written policy in accepting into the 1986 program at least two American-born applicants who had not received a required written certification, which Dr. Wahid had at the time of his application. Bleicher also testified that New York State was pressuring hospitals to accept only graduates of American medical schools and American-born graduates of foreign medical schools for “cultural” reasons, and that the Hospital was also under financial pressure from Congress through restrictions on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for services performed by foreign-born physicians.

After being denied admission, Dr. Wahid was later admitted into and completed a training program in two other New York City-area hospitals, including Columbia-Presbyterian, and has received board-certification in two specialities.

The jury awarded Dr. Wahid $500,000 in back pay and $1 million in front pay damages.

Daniel J. Kaiser and Henry L. Saurborn, Jr. of Kaiser Saurborn & Mair, P.C. in New York City represented Dr. Wahid.

Alfred P. Vigorito of Bartlett, McDonough, Bastone & Monaghan in White Plains represented Brooklyn Caledonian Hospital.

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