Nicole Seaman: Queens cop battling breast cancer sues NYPD doc John Santucci for harassment
QUEENS, NEW YORK: A Queens police officer undergoing treatment for a serious breast cancer alleges that the NYPD's deputy chief surgeon "harassed" her into returning to work even though she had a port implanted in her chest to facilitate chemotherapy. Nicole Seaman, 33, claims that asking to return to full duty put her at risk of medical emergency "and even death."
In a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit against the city and the doctor, Seaman claimed that her medical background, including a range of health issues stemming from her 2018 diagnosis, was irrelevant to NYPD doctor John Santucci. "Why do I care if you have a port or not? If you can't work full duty, you are of no use to the NYPD," Santucci reportedly told her.
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Who is Nicole Seaman?
Seaman joined the service in 2014 and was on maternity leave for just a few weeks after the birth of her first child in June 2018 when she received a tragic diagnosis - Stage 2 "triple negative" breast cancer, "which has the grimmest chance of survival," she stated in a March 3 court filing. The survival rate of patients with this disease is 77 per cent. To treat her cancer and reconstruct her breasts, Seaman underwent 12 surgeries. She was off work until 2020, when she returned on a restricted schedule and began consulting an NYPD doctor once a month, the New York Post reports.
What did Nicole Seaman claim in lawsuit?
In the complaint, Seaman alleged Santucci took her case in 2021 and "would berate her" every time they spoke. "You don't know how powerful I am," he told the officer, according to the complaint. "I could have you gone by the end of the day," he threatened her.
What did Nicole Seaman's attorney say?
Despite the fact that Seaman still needs port and is unable to don a bulletproof vest, Santucci ordered her to return to full duty in August. "The NYPD Medical Division would rather berate a police officer fighting for her life against the most aggressive form of breast cancer than accommodate her," said her attorney, John Scola.
Seaman, the second cancer-stricken officer who sued Santucci for harassment, seeked unspecified damages. The cancer-stricken cop who filed suit against the doctor in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 10, alleged that Santucci, 62, who is affiliated with NYU Langone, allegedly harassed her on a monthly basis and threatened to fire her if she took more sick days. He also tried to send her back to work before she had healed from radiation treatment, MEAWW reported.