ST. LOUIS — A nurse alleges Barnes-Jewish Hospital withdrew multiple job offers due to her hearing disability.
Sunshine Miles filed a complaint Oct. 24 in federal court against BJC Health System and Barnes-Jewish Hospital alleging violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Missouri Humans Rights Act and other claims.
Miles, according to her complaint, is a deaf individual whose primary means of communication is American Sign Language. She alleges that in April of 2022, she applied for and was offered a dialysis nursing position with Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and that after explaining she is deaf and requires relay service to communicate over the phone, the hospital withdrew her job offer.
She further claims that in May of 2022, she was offered a job with Barnes-Jewish Hospital as an oncology nurse and requested sign language interpreters as a reasonable accommodation on the job. Miles alleges that the defendants "pushed back" her start date asked how she would be able to perform her job as a deaf individual and then withdrew that job offer.
Barnes seeks monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. She is represented by John Garvey, Colleen Garvey and Ellen Thomas of Stranch, Jennings & Garvey in St. Louis and Mary Vargas and Michael Stein of Stein & Vargas in Washington, D.C.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri case number 4:23-CV-01336-CDP