Nurse Hopes Her Firing Suit Helps Other Reservists

Debra M. Simpson, the nurse and National Guard captain who was fired from her job at a private Santa Ana health clinic after a hitch of active duty, said Saturday that she is suing the clinic partly to protect other reservists who leave their civilian jobs during the Persian Gulf crisis.

“I think this happens more frequently than people realize,” said Simpson, who was fired last month. “For those that don’t have the support or the ability (to sue)--that’s why I’m doing this. . . . People who choose to be in a reserve unit, they have a right to do that.”

Her eyes occasionally welling tears, Simpson, 35, said she is suing the Care Visions Kangaroo Kids Center also to remove what she believes is a stain on her reputation, caused by the firing.

Simpson had worked there for about seven months as a nurse and a health care administrator. Her lawsuit was filed last week in Orange County Superior Court.

Representatives of the children’s health center did not respond Saturday to telephone messages seeking comment.

The center issued a statement Friday, defending the firing of Simpson as the clinic’s nurse administrator.

“Our concern at all times,” the statement said, “has been and is the well-being of the children in our care.”

The statement added that Simpson was fired because, in the view of management, “she was due back to work on Oct. 1 but did not show up or call.”

Simpson disagreed, saying that she had told the health clinic’s chief executive officer twice orally and once in writing that she would not return to work until Oct. 3, a Wednesday.

Simpson said she was unable to recover a copy of the written notification, because clinic officials told her that they could not find the document.

Simpson, who lives in Tustin, said she was not aware of any tensions with the management of the health center or dissatisfaction with her performance before she was called up Aug. 6.

“There didn’t seem to be any problems until I returned,” Simpson said. “And then, an hour after I returned, on the third, I was fired. . . . They then said that I was fired for abandonment of position. As an administrator, that’s very strong language.”

Simpson said when she first discussed the matter with her bosses, on Aug. 1, she envisioned serving a “voluntary” period of active duty. But on Aug. 2, Iraq invaded Kuwait, quickly changing the lives of U.S. reservists.

On Aug. 6, Simpson said, her status changed and she was ordered to report.

She said she served the next few weeks in a hospital emergency room in Nuremberg, Germany, replacing personnel who had been shifted to the Persian Gulf.

Simpson said she returned to California late on the night of Sept. 29 and did not consider it necessary to check in by phone with her clinic bosses.

Clinic officials, in their statement Friday, said they had tried to call Simpson and delivered, by courier, a letter to her. Simpson denied receiving a letter and said that if attempts were made to call her, they were not recorded by her telephone answering machine.

Simpson said she is receiving “a lot of support” from her National Guard colleagues who, like her, worry whether reservists will lose jobs as the United States masses troops in the Middle East.

“There are companies out there who are good about it,” Simpson said. “But there are other companies where it is a struggle.”