Seeing Harassment Caused Problems, Nurse Testifies

A San Pedro nurse, seeking damages for witnessing a doctor’s alleged sexual harassment of other nurses, testified Friday that the episodes left her with headaches, diarrhea, a drinking problem and “a rapid heartbeat so fast I could not count it.”

Taking the stand for the first time, Julie Fisher, a Rancho Palos Verdes resident and former surgical nurse at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, related in calm tones several instances in which South Bay physician Barry Tischler allegedly fondled and hugged nurses in sexually suggestive ways.

In a landmark “environmental” harassment case, Fisher is seeking damages from Tischler and the hospital as a witness to the alleged sexual harassment, not as the direct target of the abuse.

Tischler and the hospital have denied any wrongdoing, contending that Fisher misinterpreted and exaggerated innocent horseplay and affection staff members used to combat the stress of the operating room.

Fisher said she witnessed the abuse from shortly after she began working at the hospital in 1981 until her resignation in 1986, which she said was brought on by stress and a drinking problem she developed after observing the harassment and being ostracized by the operating room staff.

Under questioning from her attorney, Peggy Garrity, Fisher described several instances in which Tischler approached nurses from behind and draped his arms around them, sweeping their breasts with his hands.

“He scooped people up with his hands under and over their breasts,” Fisher said.

She also recounted a 1982 incident in which Tischler grabbed her from behind and squeezed so tight that it tore cartilage in her ribs. Tischler apologized in a letter, sent at the behest of a hospital committee investigating Fisher’s complaint.

But, she said, several months later Tischler fondled another nurse.

“I couldn’t believe it was starting all over again,” Fisher said. “The hospital should have done something to stop it. I didn’t know what I would see coming out a door anymore.”

Asked by Garrity how she felt and dealt with the abuse, Fisher replied: “I didn’t know what to feel. I was humiliated. I was scared of him. I still am. I was afraid, very afraid.”

Fisher said she was unable to quit her job sooner because the medical training she was receiving was valuable and she needed the job to support her family.

The abuse, she said, took its toll.

“I had severe headaches and stomach cramps and diarrhea. I had a rapid heartbeat so fast I could not count it. I was depressed, sad, (and) I started drinking,” she said. She said she underwent six weeks of alcohol abuse counseling at a Long Beach clinic.

Under cross-examination from Tischler’s attorney, John C. Kelly, Fisher denied that she was a willing participant of Tischler’s and other staff members’ antics in the operating room.

She said other members of the tight-knit staff ostracized her after she complained about Tischler in 1982 and 1986.

When Kelly asked what would happen when other operating room staff testified that Tischler’s activities did not offend them, Fisher said she would not be able to explain their answers.

Fisher said only one other nurse complained to her about the harassment, but others would “roll their eyes” in what she interpreted as a sign of disapproval.

Kelly went on to suggest that Fisher has an exaggerated perception of what constitutes sexually suggestive hugging or fondling.

“When someone gives someone a hug, is that the definition of fondling breasts?” Kelly asked.

“It depends on how the hug is given. I consider the hugging I described as fondling breasts,” Fisher replied.

She is expected to continue her testimony on Monday.