COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A man who quit his nursing job at a Council Bluffs hospital after he says he was prohibited from telling two patients they were worked on with unsterilized instruments is suing the hospital for back pay and damages. Robert Owen Burgin says he resigned from Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs in April 2013 after his bosses refused to tell two patients that surgical instruments used on them in 2012 hadn’t been properly sterilized.

The Omaha World Herald Reports Burgin filed the lawsuit against Mercy’s parent Alegent Creighton Health on Monday in Pottawattamie County. Alegent Creighton says it will formally respond to the allegations through the court process and denies their accuracy.

Burgin, who is 56, now works as a temporary nurse in Tulsa, Oklahoma.