WORCESTER, Mass. — Eight nurses who are out of a job have brought forth a lawsuit against Saint Vincent Hospital and their parent company, Tenet Healthcare. The suit, filed in Worcester Superior Court, claims they were wrongfully terminated for blowing the whistle on conditions in the hospital.

The MNA says this suit was brought under the state's "whistleblower statute," which they say is designed to protect nurses from being fired or retaliated against after disclosing their employer is violating standards which could pose a public health risk.

The group is being called the "Saint Vincent 8." The MNA says prior to the suit, nurses had spent several months documenting and reporting issues surrounding conditions and staffing at the hospital. More than 600 official reports were made in the last six months to hospital leadership. 

MNA complaints triggered an investigation by the state's Department of Public Health. DPH says they provided Saint Vincent Hospital with a written statement of the deficiencies found during the investigation. Saint Vincent submitted a plan of correction, which was then reviewed and accepted by DPH, who says the hospital is back in compliance. 

Saint Vincent Hospital declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday. Nurses say frustration is an understatement.

"And I thought, like during COVID, I thought that was maybe the worst of my nursing career," said registered nurse Carla LeBlanc. "And then the strike happened, and that seemed like that was the worst. But this is far worse than both of those things combined. The conditions that these patients are in is unbearable. You see nurses crying on their shifts on a regular basis. That's not once in a while, on a regular basis, you see nurses crying on their shifts. You see people too anxious to come into work, you know, like having panic attacks or having like medical conditions related to the stress that they're working under. But it doesn't matter. It feels like no matter what we do, there's no back and forth about it."

Nurses are calling for the reinstatement of the terminated nurses, along with back pay, and the restoration of their benefits. The MNA is also demanding nurses get back their seniority rights as well.

Spectrum News 1 spoke to the MNA's Marlena Pellegrino, who described the situation as disheartening. 

"Even though we are being abused and we are being treated poorly and now our colleagues have paid the ultimate price, there is a part of us that we cannot turn a blind eye and walk away from Saint Vincent Hospital used to be," Pellegrino said. "We want to return it to the pillar of the community it was. And if that means that we have to stand up, you know, David versus Goliath all the time, and we know who wins in that. So we will continue to stand up and honor our hospital and our profession."

We also asked Pellegrino why nurses don't go to a different hospital to work, and she said it wouldn't be right to leave other patients and staff behind.