Yuma doctor claims he was fired for talking about COVID-19 in Arizona

(KYMA, KECY) - Many people expressed frustrations on Twitter Thursday night after an ER doctor from Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC) took to social media to report getting fired for tweeting about the severity of COVID-19 in Yuma County.

AzCentral reported Dr. Cleavon Gilman had not been working at YRMC since November 23rd.

🧵NO ICU BEDS! When our rural Arizona hospital ICU is full, we medevac patients to different hospitals across the state, BUT NOT TONIGHT, because there were NO ACCEPTING HOSPITALS, so for an entire 12 hour shift we managed ICU patients, while treating other emergencies. 1/13

— Cleavon MD (@Cleavon_MD) November 23, 2020

Since then, the tweet has been liked and retweeted by politicians, doctors, and other individuals. Each voiced their frustration with YRMC after Gilman claimed he was fired for "exposing the truth."

The doctor said Envision Healthcare, the healthcare staffing company he worked for, told him he was fired due to his tweets.

According to Gilman, he was scheduled the following three days but the "hospital didn't permit" him to come in.

"All I know is this hospital is trying to crush my voice, they want to silence me and they want to financially hurt me. This is all so wrong." the doctor wrote on Twitter.

However, in a statement released late Thursday night, YRMC writes:

A message from Yuma Regional Medical Center. pic.twitter.com/fHsVx2bguo

— YumaRegional (@YumaRegional) December 11, 2020

Sources say Gilman served as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Marines during the Iraq War before becoming the chief resident of emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital during the beginning of the pandemic.

In an interview with AzCentral, Gilman says, "The death toll during the entire Iraq War was equivalent to what we see now every single day," he said. "You could leave a warzone if you couldn't handle it. COVID is everywhere."

Since March 20, Gilman has been documenting what's "been happening on the frontlines" in his journal #CleavonMDjournal.

He concluded his interview with AzCentral by saying, "The people of Yuma deserve an honest doctor who gives them the truth, who cares about them and who advocates for them. They have trusted me and I am not leaving them without a fight."