Support UVA Doctors, Nurses & Staff's Legal Representation

WORLD CLASS PATIENT CARE STARTS WITH PROTECTING OUR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

We started this fundraiser out of immense gratitude for our doctors, faculty, trainees, nurses and hospital staff who we believe should not have to bear legal costs that are a direct result of a failure of leadership at UVA.

We also believe that more than 100 UVA School of Medicine clinical faculty and UVA Health physicians wouldn’t risk their careers if they weren’t telling the truth.

We have been advised that our doctors' legal fees could collectively end up costing them over $1,000,000. Our initial fundraising goal is $250,000 to send a message of public support for our healthcare professionals who are also our family, friends and neighbors.

100% of funds raised will go to support our doctors telling the truth while protecting them from retaliation.

TRANSPARENCY

Our doctors will work with their attorneys to write a report documenting the evidence submitted to the UVA Board of Visitors, UVA Leaders and Williams & Connolly's attorneys. The doctors' report will be released to the public.

We will release a final accounting report to the public detailing funds raised to support legal representation and payments made.

We will donate any excess funds remaining to the UVA Health Foundation.

BACKGROUND

On September 5, 2024, our doctors and faculty at UVA Health and the UVA School of Medicine sent a Letter of No Confidence in CEO Craig Kent and Dean Melina Kibbe to the UVA Board of Visitors. In the letter, they described how Craig Kent and Melina Kibbe had fostered conditions at UVA that endangered their patients, threatened and retaliated against physicians and staff who tried to address issues of patient safety, and allowed the falsification of patient records.

UVA President Jim Ryan responded by calling the serious allegations in the letter "generalized and anonymous claims of wrongdoing" after which the doctors sent a follow-up letter to the UVA Board of Visitors with additional concerns on September 12, 2024. This letter detailed numerous specific incidents that Jim Ryan and UVA Leaders were aware of dating back to September, 2021.

The UVA Board of Visitors then announced it had retained the law firm Williams & Connolly to conduct an investigation into these matters. In its September 18, 2024 article regarding UVA’s action, The Daily Progress wrote that Williams & Connolly is "recognized as one of the world’s premier litigation firms." According to Williams & Connolly's website, "For over 20 years, Williams & Connolly has established itself as the firm that many large health care companies turn to when faced with high-stakes criminal and civil litigation."

We also note with concern that Williams & Connolly defended Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and former CEO of Theranos, in a case that alleged Holmes perpetrated multi-million-dollar wire-fraud schemes against investors and patients.

Fortunately, up to this point, concerned attorneys have been willing to work pro bono to help UVA doctors present their evidence to Williams & Connolly.

These attorneys have stressed to our doctors and to Williams & Connolly the importance of our doctors having their own legal representation during all meetings to ensure that any conclusions reached can be verified and fact checked. This is particularly important because our doctors have been and will be discussing patient safety issues including patient deaths, financial malfeasance including criminal fraud, and retaliatory incidents that have resulted in some of their colleagues being demoted and fired.

Our doctors have been advised consistently by attorneys and others that under no circumstances should they engage in interviews concerning these serious matters with UVA's retained litigators without having their own legal representation present.

In light of what our doctors have witnessed at UVA Health, this seems to us to be eminently sensible counsel. In fact, we believe that for our doctors to proceed in this investigation without legal representation would be not only irresponsible on their part, but detrimental to the investigation.

However, when our doctors requested funding for legal representation, they were informed by the UVA Board of Visitors that Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares had refused their request.

Attorney General Miyares then ignored a letter seeking clarification sent to him by our doctors but his office was recently quoted in The Daily Progress stating he had already “retained a respected law firm to inquire into and help resolve issues,” and that funding another law firm is unnecessary.

Meanwhile, the UVA Faculty Senate has responded to all of this with a resolution supporting the School of Medicine faculty and requesting for resources to help the medical faculty retain counsel while participating with the Williams & Connolly investigation.

OUR DOCTORS DESERVE BETTER

For updates on these serious matters, you can sign up to hear directly from our doctors, nurses, and hospital staff at TheTruthAboutUVAHealth.com.

Please message us with any questions.

We are forever indebted to our doctors, nurses, and hospital staff for their daily contributions to our community and are thankful for each and every one of them.

Thank you for your support!

UVA Health Patients & Concerned Citizens