Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - She Got Fired Over This // The Debbie Stevens Kidney Story

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

In 2011, a woman named Debbie Stevens reportedly donated a kidney through a transplant chain to help her boss. After the surgery, Stevens later claimed she faced workplace problems during recovery and was eventually fired.

Imagine giving your boss a kidney, and then they fire you. Well, that's what happened to this woman. Her name's Debbie, and Debbie is 45 living in Florida. Here's the thing about Debbie. She's a very nice person, the kind of person who goes way out of her way to help people. And so one day, she travels all the way to Long Island, New York, to visit her daughter. And while she's there, she stops by a car dealership where she used to work. So she walks into the place and she chats with some old co-workers of hers, including her former boss, this woman, Jacqueline.

And she and Jacqueline are happy to see each other and they start catching up and talking about life and everything that's happened since Debbie left. But during the conversation, Jacqueline drops a bomb on Debbie. She tells her that her health isn't so good and that she has some serious kidney problems and that she's going to need a transplant. And like I said, Debbie is a really nice person who goes out of her way to help people. So immediately, she feels bad for Jacqueline. I mean, Jacqueline isn't just an old boss. She's also a friend. Now, Jacqueline already has a donor lined up for a new kidney, so she's probably going to be fine.

Regardless, Debbie tells her that if the potential donor doesn't work out, she'd be willing to donate one of her own kidneys, which I'm sure Jacqueline finds very nice. So after spending some time in Long Island, Debbie eventually heads back home to Florida. But then, for whatever reason, Debbie ends up moving back to Long Island. So now that she's there, she needs a job. And what better place to hit up than the old dealership she used to work at? So she reaches out to Jacqueline and asks if there's any positions available. And Jacqueline's like, of course, you're hired.

And so Debbie starts working there again, in her old position as an assistant. But then, out of nowhere, Jacqueline runs into a problem. Apparently, around this time, she finds out that her kidney donor, for whatever reason, has fallen through. So now she needs a new one. So she starts looking at Debbie. And so Jacqueline calls Debbie into her office to give her an update on her kidney donor, and she tells her the previous donor isn't going to work out, and now she desperately needs a new one. Then she's like, were you serious about donating your kidney?

And Debbie's like, of course I was. So they get started on this kidney transplant plan. And Debbie goes through the medical screening and the evaluation process, because, you know, she needs to see if she's a match and she can actually be a donor for Jacqueline. And as it turns out, she's not a match. But then she learns about some program they have where if Debbie donates a kidney to some patient she's a match to, that they would then move Jacqueline up much higher on the organ. donor list. And so Debbie, again, the nicest person in the world, she's like, sounds good.

Guess I'll donate my kidney to a total stranger. And she agrees to do it. So Debbie moves forward. And she goes through the surgery and she donates her kidney to someone she's never met. It's like a random person who lives in another state. And so now she's down one kidney. But the good thing is, Jacqueline's movement to a higher spot on the organ donor list made it so that she's able to find a donor who is a match. And Jacqueline gets her surgery and now she has a new kidney. Good for her. But then this whole thing starts to get a little complicated.

Because a few weeks go by and Debbie is at home recovering from surgery while Jacqueline has already recovered and she's already back at work. And at some point, Jacqueline starts thinking, damn, what? it's taking Debbie so long to recover. I guess in her mind she feels like Debbie is just being lazy and dragging things out unnecessarily, enjoying her time off or whatever. So Jacqueline starts hitting her up, pressuring her to come back to work already. Like it's just a kidney, get your ass back to work. Now eventually, Debbie does return to work. But here's the thing about that though. Debbie isn't feeling too hot. Apparently her surgery recovery didn't go so smoothly. Like they

were some complications. Like during the surgery, one of Debbie's nerves was accidentally damaged, so she's having a lot of abdominal pain and some digestive problems, and she's having difficulty lifting heavy things. Regardless, Debbie is a hard worker, and she's not one to give excuses, and she tries her best to push through the problems and do the best job she can do. However, that only works for so long. Soon, all these complications start affecting Debbie at work. Like, she can't move around all that easily, she has to take a lot of bathroom breaks, and some days people can tell that she's visibly in pain. Now, Jacqueline notices all this is going on, and she's like not sympathetic to her at all. She actually starts getting upset with her,

and she's like constantly criticizing her. And now she like makes Debbie ask permission before she can go use the bathroom. So it feels like she's straight up punishing her. Like one day Debbie feels so sick that she has to leave work early. And when Jacqueline hears about this, she gets all pissed off. And she like calls Debbie and she's like, why'd you leave work? You have a job to do. You can't come and go whenever you want. And from here, things keep getting worse.

Because Jacqueline continues to treat Debbie like shit. She starts taking things away from her, like she takes away Debbie's office, and she removes her from getting overtime hours. And she basically now treats her like she's a bad employee. So finally, Debbie goes and reports her to other higher-ups at the company and says she's being harassed. And the company responds by doing the worst thing. They demote Debbie and they transfer her to another dealership. And this dealership is nearly 50 miles away from where Debbie lives.

So now she has a long-ass commute to work every day. And at this new dealership, things aren't necessarily better. Like she gets treated like shit there too, according to her. Her new supervisor is also super mean to her and he mocks her health problems and even accuses her of exaggerating her condition. And all of this just destroys Debbie emotionally. So much so that she has to start seeing a psychiatrist to help cope with everything that's been happening. And at some point during all this, she finally decides that she's had enough. And she goes and she hires an attorney.

And that attorney sends a letter to the dealership company explaining the situation and how she is being treated unfairly when she's having real medical issues and that they need to knock it off. And instead of fixing the situation, the dealership company, straight up, fires Debbie. And they tell her it's for performance issues, but Debbie believes that that's bullshit. And that is when she just snaps. Like, how dare they fire her? She gave up a whole ass kidney to help save Jacqueline's life, and this is how she gets repaid? So Debbie goes and she files a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights, which is the state body that enforces human rights law and make sure that people don't get fired for unlawful reasons and, you know, stuff like that.

And so the Division of Human Rights investigates and they say, yeah, there's enough reliable evidence to suggest that the dealership had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when they fired Debbie. And so, Debbie's attorney files a lawsuit against the dealership company for $15 million. And in 2014, the company settles with her out of court for an undisclosed amount. I assume Debbie got a lot of money from them.