A New Jersey nurse has filed a lawsuit against her hospital and a surgeon after claiming she was suspended for confronting him when he allegedly celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck during a debate with a student about mass shootings on Wednesday.
Disturbing footage captured him recoiling from the impact before he was later pronounced dead.
Lexi Kuenzle, a 33-year-old nurse at Englewood Health, said the news of Kirk’s killing broke while she was at the nurse’s station with eight colleagues and a patient resting nearby.
This is according to the New York Post.
Shocked by the announcement, Kuenzle exclaimed, “Oh my God! That’s terrible! I love him!”
General surgeon Dr. Matthew Jung allegedly responded, “I hate Charlie Kirk. He had it coming. He deserved it.”
Kuenzle told the outlet that she reminded Jung of his role as a medical professional and questioned how he could say someone deserved to die.
“It’s mind-blowing to me,” she said. “I was so angry and upset.”
The nurse reported Jung to hospital management before going home and sharing the incident on social media.
On Instagram, she wrote: “This ‘DOCTOR’ is a disgrace.”
“Had the audacity to say ‘I’m glad, he deserved it’ in front of a PATIENT/nursing station in regards to Charlie Kirk being murdered today.”
She continued, “You are what’s wrong with the world. Offered to ‘buy the department lunch’ as an apology. You are SICK and I’m not gonna sit back and hear it.”
“His patients deserve to know what kind of compassion he truly lacks for human life.”
Kuenzle said the next day she was called into a meeting with human resources, where she was informed she would be suspended without pay pending an investigation into the incident.
Hospital staff told her the process was standard procedure.
She later shared an email on Instagram, allegedly from her union representative, which advised her to prepare for termination.
The email read: “I am sure you recognize the seriousness of the current situation.”
“The posting with the EH affiliation and the disagreement in front of an awake patient are at the heart of this extremely serious matter. I have to advise you that this may lead to termination.”
“Do you have other employment? If not, I would strongly suggest that you start looking for another RN job,” it added.
The Post noted that on Friday, Kuenzle filed a lawsuit in Bergen County Superior Court against both Englewood Health and Dr. Jung.
She claimed in the filing that she was wrongfully fired for speaking out about the surgeon’s comments on her personal Instagram account.
Her account includes photos of her posing with a cardboard cutout of former President Donald Trump.
The court documents stated: “Kuenzle had the audacity to question how Dr. Jung can comply with the Hippocratic Oath’s and the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics while celebrating the murder of a non-violent Christian speaker who was on a college campus.”
The lawsuit also referenced Jung’s alleged offer to buy lunch for the nurses who overheard his comments, but noted that if he “were to follow through on his ‘mocking’ offer, it would not have included plaintiff because she had been suspended without pay.”
Kuenzle, who has been a nurse for 10 years and nearly two at Englewood, is seeking unspecified damages.
It remains unclear whether Jung faced any disciplinary action for his remarks.
