Ex-County Worker Sues for $1 Million

A former medical radiation physicist sued the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services for $1 million Tuesday, charging that he was fired for complaining about safety hazards and other irregularities in county-operated hospitals and clinics.

For more than four years, Reuven Zach monitored radiation equipment at Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, at San Fernando Valley public health centers and at High Desert Hospital in Lancaster.

But Zach was released from his job shortly after he sent a letter to County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on Sept. 23 complaining about faulty X-ray equipment. The letter was among a series of memos he wrote to his superiors warning about the radiation practices at the facilities, which, he claimed, were overradiating patients.

“It amounts to no more than a sham,” attorney Laurence B. Labovitz said of Zach’s Oct. 17 layoff. Labovitz alleged that Zach was wrongfully discharged and asked for $1 million in damages, back pay and reinstatement.

The Board of Supervisors “does nothing to protect the individual who is actually trying to assist the public and society by saving all these wasted dollars and preventing injury to the public,” Labovitz said.

Toby Staheli, a spokeswoman for the health department, said the county would not comment on the suit before seeing it.

At the time of his dismissal, county officials said Zach and 16 other health employees were laid off on the basis of seniority to save $650,000 annually.

Zach complained that, in some cases, expired film was substituted for new film, which he said disappeared from clinics. He also alleged that the X-ray machinery was not properly maintained and that county radiation workers were using improperly calibrated equipment and overdosing children with radiation by taking multiple exposures.