Whistleblower Nurse in Need
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My name is Dawn Wooten. I am a lifelong resident of Georgia, a single mother of five children, and a nurse. I am also a whistleblower.
In early 2020, I was working as an LPN at the Irwin County Detention Center (ICDC), an ICE-contracted detention center run by LaSalle Corrections, where I witnessed failures to protect immigrants in detention and workers from COVID-19. I also discovered that immigrant women were undergoing hysterectomies and other gynecological procedures without informed consent. When I began to ask questions and raise concerns internally to my co-workers, supervisors and management, I was demoted from a full-time nursing position to an on-call position—and never called again.
I knew I couldn’t stay silent about what I had seen and experienced at ICDC. So with the help of the attorneys at Government Accountability Project and Project South, I filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General in early September 2020 and public complaints with the OIG and Congress calling for investigations to address the medical misconduct at the detention facility.
Subsequent media coverage about the nonconsensual hysterectomies and other invasive surgeries went viral. Over 170 members of Congress demanded an investigation into ICDC. Fifty-seven women survivors of unwanted medical procedures from ICDC came forward to tell their stories; several filed a class action lawsuit to seek justice for the mistreatment they suffered, validating my disclosures about the misconduct I discovered. And because of the agency investigations my whistleblower complaint set in motion, the Department of Homeland Security moved to end ICDC 's contract to detain immigrants, effective September 2021, just a year after my whistleblower disclosures were made public.
As a nurse, my professional duty compelled me to speak up about the medical misconduct I witnessed. But that same choice has made it nearly impossible to continue doing the nursing work I love. I have been unemployed and unemployable—as a nurse during a pandemic—quickly and explicitly recognized in Georgia as “the whistleblower” because of the viral response to my disclosures and the role I played in disclosing horrific practices at ICDC. A GoFundMe campaign set up for me right after national coverage of my disclosures helped pay for temporary relocation and security protection and for a few months of expenses of not working as a result of my whistleblowing. But now, more than two years later, I still am not nursing despite having applied for well over a hundred positions in the surrounding area. It is difficult to pay for necessities like rent, car insurance, and food for my children.
I am glad that my choice to speak up rather than stay silent made a difference and ended the abuses at ICDC. And I am honored that I have been recognized for my whistleblowing: I received the HMH Foundation's First Amendment Award, have been a portrait subject for the Americans Who Tell the Truth portrait series, was recognized as a human rights hero by Physicians for Human Rights, and received the Feleta Wilson award by the American Public Health Association’s Nursing Division. This support has fueled my resilience and my spirit, knowing I did the right thing by speaking out.
But day-to-day living remains challenging. I am represented pro bono by Government Accountability Project to seek justice for suffering unlawful whistleblower retaliation, but that process is slow and doesn’t help feed my family while waiting for a decision. My faith gets me through these difficult times, and I am unshaken in my belief that blowing the whistle was the right thing to do; I would do it again. Your support of me will not only help me weather the real cost of blowing the whistle, but it will broadcast to other employees of conscience who have spoken up in the past, or who might still come forward, that the public values whistleblowers. The journey can be lonely and personally devastating, even if it is the right path.
With your support, I will be able to stay strong in the continuing fight for justice while working to educate and inspire others through public speaking and writing a book about the importance of truth-telling (please visit https://www.nursedawnwooten.com to learn more). It will also help me pay for continued nursing education while supporting my family. Your support and encouragement will help not only me and my family but others who, after hearing my story, may choose to exercise moral courage in the face of wrongdoing.
It gives me strength to know that others value the truth I spoke and the change I sparked, recognizing the essential role whistleblowers play in protecting the vulnerable, even as we are often made vulnerable in the course of our truth-telling. I am deeply grateful for your support and investment in me.
In gratitude,
Dawn Wooten
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Organizer
Dawn Wooten
Organizer
Atlanta, GA