Manhattan jury awards $4M to LI ophthalmologist Dr. Habeeb Ahmad, court records show

A Manhattan jury awarded $4 million to an eye doctor from Long Island who said his employer, NYU Langone Health System, discriminated against him after he became disabled from contracting COVID-19.

The jury awarded Dr. Habeeb Ahmad, an ophthalmologist and Nassau County resident, $2 million in emotional distress damages; $1.775 million in back and front pay and $250,000 in punitive damages from NYU Langone and NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, court records show. Also named in the suit were Ahmad’s direct supervisor, Dr. Doug Lazzaro, NYU's vice chairman at ophthalmology and Scott Mellynchuk, an NYU labor relations manager.

"We are disappointed and disagree with the verdict and will undertake efforts to reverse this outcome on motion and appeal," said NYU Langone spokesperson Steve Ritea.

In a statement announcing the jury verdict, Ahmad's lawyers from the Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC, in Manhattan, called the verdict "a landmark moment in the ongoing fight for disability inclusion in the workplace" that "reinforces employers' legal duty to engage in good faith when employees request accommodations."

"This is a tremendous result for the client and his family. He deserves every penny after what NYU did to him," said Alex Cabeceiras, the lead trial attorney.

In March 2020, Ahmad contracted the coronavirus, was intubated for respiratory failure at Northwell Manhasset and spent 54 days in the ICU on a ventilator, according to a lawsuit his lawyers filed in 2022.

During his hospitalization, Ahmad was treated for pneumonia, sepsis, liver infections, organ failure, catheter related urinary tract infections, clots, pulmonary embolism, heart ischemia, critical illness neuropathy and severe allergic syndrome to medications he was prescribed, the lawsuit said.

Ahmed had "severe atrophy" and "was unable to use his left hand and his right leg had a sudden foot drop" when he regained consciousness.

In early June 2020, he was transferred to NYU Rusk, a rehabilitation center, where he was given "blood transfusions whenever he fell" and treated for "muscle bleeding," the lawsuit said. When he was discharged in August 2020, he couldn't walk, the suit said.

On Oct. 6, 2020, Mellynchuk emailed Ahmad asking when he would be returning to work because his six months of medical disability leave had expired, the lawsuit said.

Ahmad requested to work from home and his physician Dr. Jason Karp informed Ahmad's employer that he had "a foot drop, balance disorder, and neuropathy" which would limit Ahmad's "ability to drive, lift, and walk."

Karp also wrote that "remote work would be feasible at this time including chief duties teaching and research," the suit said.

But NYU Langone disagreed, with Mellynchuk denying Ahmad's request to work from home and saying his workload was "predominantly clinical in nature, with comparatively minor academic and administrative duties," which Ahmad refuted.

Ahmad also alleged in his suit that NYU Langone sent him a letter "falsely claiming that he now owed them $125,030 because he was overpaid during an unpaid sick leave while Ahmad was lying unconscious in the hospital fighting for his life."

Ahmad was terminated on Jan. 4, 2021.

As a result of his employer's treatment, Ahmed said he "felt extremely humiliated, degraded, victimized, embarrassed, and emotionally distressed" and suffered "severe emotional distress and physical ailments including extreme anxiety and severe depression" and had trouble eating and sleeping.
Ahmad also said he "endured unwarranted financial hardships and irreparable damage to his professional reputation."

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.