A woman who donated her kidney to help her boss said she was shocked when she later got fired. Debbie Stevens, 47, from Long Island, said she felt betrayed after the surgery and the way she was treated afterward.
She said: “I decided to become a kidney donor to my boss, and she took my heart. I feel very betrayed. This has been a very hurtful and horrible experience for me. She just took this gift and put it on the ground and kicked it.”
Debbie first met her boss Jackie Brucia in 2009 when she started working at an auto group in Long Island. She left the job in 2010 but returned a year later, and during a visit she learned Brucia needed a transplant. Debbie mentioned she would be willing to donate, and Brucia said: “You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day.”
Later Brucia’s original donor was denied, and she asked Debbie if her offer was real. Debbie said yes because she respected her and did not want her to die.
Debbie was not a match, but doctors let her donate to someone else so Brucia could move higher on the list. Debbie said: “I felt I was giving her life back. My kidney ended up going to St. Louis, Missouri, and hers came from San Francisco.”
After the surgery Debbie said she had complications but was pressured to return to work. One day she left early and got a call at home.
She said Brucia told her: “What are you doing? Why aren’t you at work? You can’t come and go as you please. People are going to think you’re getting special treatment.”
Debbie said after that she lost her office and overtime, was moved to a dealership far from her home, and her mental health got worse. She told reporters: “She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery. It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney.”
Her lawyers later wrote a letter to the company, and she was fired not long after. The company and Brucia did not comment at the time, but Brucia’s husband said the claims were far from the truth and that she didn’t fire anybody.
