Lawsuit: Employee fired after donating kidney to boss

Distressed: Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old mother of two, offered her boss her kidney as she is 'a naturally kind and generous person'. But her generosity backfired when she was fired, she claims

Deborah Stevens donated a kidney so her boss could receive a transplant while she working at Atlantic Automotive Group and now the Long Island woman says she was fired soon after and is demanding satisfaction from a court.

 According to the NY Post, in papers filed with the New York state Human Rights commission, Stevens charges that she was clearly set up by Jackie Brucia, 61, her once-ailing boss at the billion-dollar Atlantic Automotive Group, which operates several new-car dealerships on Long Island.

Accused: Boss Jackie Brucia allegedly re-hired Debbie Stevens after she offered to donate her kidney

 The story is detailed and complex, but for the kidney donation, Stevens offered to help and became a link in a multiple-patient kidney chain, which resulted in a kidney for Brucia.

 "You have to give one kidney to get one," reveals CBS News.

 "Mine was donated on her behalf so that she could get another one, so she could get a good one that matched her perfectly," Stevens said

 According to Stevens, the only thanks she ever got from her boss came in the form of an email reading, "Thanks more than I can ever say."

Trouble at work after the operation...

 According to HuffPo, Stevens says she felt pressure on her to return to work soon after the procedure even though she didn’t feel well enough.

 Once Stevens came back to her job after the surgery for the kidney donation, the divorced mother says that she lost her overtime pay and was demoted to a dealership 50 miles from her home.

 Stevens said she had complications from the surgery, like nerve damage in her leg, but her boss, the recipient of another kidney thanks to the kindness of the now ailing employee, didn't seem to care.

 "And she told me, it sounds like a personal problem and she wasn't interested," Stevens said.

 "And I said, well it's a personal problem because it's surgery. I've never had a kidney removed. And she said, 'Oh, are you throwing this up in my face?'"

 After lawyers wrote a letter to the company, Stevens was allegedly fired.

 Atlantic Automotive Group released a statement saying they did everything correctly.

 Part of the statement blames the employee for poor performance both before and after the surgery.

 "While we applaud Deborah Stevens for her selfless assistance to a fellow employee, the reality is that she was terminated from Atlantic Automotive Group for poor job performance over the course of many months.

 Reports that her dismissal is connected to her kidney donation are incorrect; but, her inability to meet the minimum standards for her job are well documented."

 Should the boss have fired the employee before the operation if her work failed to "meet the minimum standards for her job?"