Nurse Sues Over Firing After Stint in Reserves : Lawsuit: A National Guard captain from Tustin hopes to protect others who leave their civilian jobs for active duty.

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.”

Simpson, 35, also said she is suing the Care Visions Kangaroo Kids Center 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.

Care Visions, a day-care center for chronically ill and disabled children, issued a statement Friday, defending the firing of Simpson from her job as the clinic’s nurse administrator.

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

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 disputed that point, saying that she 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. Clinic officials, she said, told her that they could not find the document.

Simpson, of Tustin, said she was not aware of any tensions with the management of the health center or dissatisfaction with her performance before she started her stint with the National Guard on Aug. 6.

“There didn’t seem to be any problems until I returned,” she said. “And then, an hour after I returned, on the 3rd, I was fired. . . . They then said that I was fired for abandonment of position. As an administrator, that’s very strong language.”

Simpson said that when she first discussed the matter with her bosses, on Aug. 1, she envisioned serving a “voluntary” stint. But on Aug. 2, Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait, quickly changing the lives of thousands of U.S. military reservists.

It was on Aug. 6, Simpson said, that her status changed and she was ordered to report. She said she served the next several weeks in a hospital emergency room in Germany, replacing personnel who had been shifted to duty in the Persian Gulf.

Simpson said she returned to California late the night of Sept. 29 and did not feel it necessary to check in by phone with her bosses at the children’s health clinic.

Clinic officials, in their statement, said they had tried to call Simpson and delivered a letter to her by courier. Simpson denied receiving any letter and said that if attempts had been 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 other reservists will lose their jobs as the United States continues to mass troops in the Persian Gulf.