Dr. Jeffrey Nordella has been tracking patients potentially affected by the massive Porter Ranch gas leak, but now his study has hit a roadblock as he's been let go from the clinic he led for 8 years.
Nordella, formerly medical director of the Porter Ranch Quality Care, said his termination from Van Nuys-based Southern California Orthopedic Institute, the group that owns the clinic, was effective September 1st.
He said:
“It kind of cut us off at the knees a bit; I have no place to see my patients. I’m scrambling to find a place; I might be in a trailer, in a parking lot, some place if I have to do that.”
Nordella said he was given "numerous reasons" for his firing. Michael Sawyer, chief executive officer of SCOI, said the firing has nothing to do with his study on the Porter Ranch gas leak:
"We’re not trying to quash his study; we think it’s a great idea and encourage him to continue to do it."
Nordella argues:
“It will be my claim that I was not given sufficient notice to relocate; there was no place I could go."
He still plans on releasing the results of his study in mid-October, even if that means meeting patients in a trailer or in their homes from now on.