The OSF Saint Anthony whistleblower lawsuit, an 18-page filing lodged in Winnebago County Circuit Court, alleges that patients were left unattended on the operating table while under anaesthesia and that staff who raised concerns faced systematic retaliation.
Three former surgical managers are suing OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, Illinois, under the Illinois Whistleblower Act. Sofia Gudino and Cindamon Proffitt, who served as operating room managers, and Tina Peppers, who was director for surgical services, filed the claim earlier this month.
The OSF Saint Anthony Whistleblower Lawsuit: What the Filing Alleges
The lawsuit centres on a pair of neurosurgeons and their conduct between 2023 and 2025, and alleges a broader culture of misconduct and harassment within the hospital’s neurosurgery department, according to WIFR, the local CBS affiliate.
On 3 February 2025, two doctors allegedly left a patient on the operating room table for an hour. More than two months later, a surgeon left her patient on the table while under anaesthesia for approximately 37 minutes to attend a meeting, the suit states.
The filing also alleges that in 2023 a surgeon fell asleep while looking through a microscope, having worked late the previous night.
The plaintiffs allege those incidents caused prolonged anaesthesia time, exposing patients to the risk of post-surgical complications. They also claim patients were fraudulently overcharged for theatre time. ‘These aforementioned instances led to prolonged anesthesia time, putting the patients at risk for post-surgery complications, and inappropriate billing for the patients,’ the suit states. ‘The patients were fraudulently and unethically overcharged for OR time, as patients are charged by the minute during OR procedures.’
Reporting Channels Exhausted Before the Claim Was Filed
Gudino, Proffitt and Peppers did not go straight to litigation. According to Becker’s Spine Review, they reported their concerns through incident reports, the hospital’s Integrity Line, and direct communications with hospital leaders, all without result.
They were reportedly warned to stop filing safety reports. Their superiors then allegedly stripped them of authority, required them to work weekends, and withheld pay, according to the lawsuit.
All three resigned in April and May 2025, citing an intolerable working environment. The lawsuit, a copy of which is hosted on Scribd, characterises those departures as constructive discharge, a recognised basis for a whistleblower claim under Illinois law. Constructive discharge arises where conditions become so intolerable that a reasonable employee would feel compelled to resign; the plaintiffs argue their resignations were coerced rather than voluntary.
Before filing, the three women held a press conference at their attorney’s office in Oak Brook, Illinois, to bring their experiences to public attention, WIFR reported.
What Happens Next
The case will now proceed in Winnebago County Circuit Court. OSF Healthcare, the parent system that operates OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, has not issued a public response to the allegations as reported in available coverage at the time of publication.
Subject to any response or counterclaim from the defendant, the court will determine whether the alleged departures from surgical safety standards and the treatment of the three plaintiffs amount to actionable violations of the Illinois Whistleblower Act. Separately, the billing allegations may attract scrutiny from healthcare regulators, given that improper charges for theatre time can engage federal and state fraud frameworks as well as private civil liability.
The next step for the plaintiffs will be to survive any motion to dismiss and advance to the discovery phase, where internal communications, incident reports, and records of the Integrity Line submissions will come under court scrutiny.
