Branell Harris, RN, showed up for her regular PACU shift woozy and disoriented. She slurred her words, appeared lost and stared blankly at a computer screensaver for minutes at a time. It was the final straw in a tumultuous working relationship with the Reston (Va.) Hospital Center, which fired Ms. Harris on the spot that day in August 2009.

Ms. Harris filed a wrongful termination lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Last month, a U.S. district court granted the hospital's motion for summary judgment, in part because Reston's leadership stuck by her through a host of personal problems that began shortly after she was hired in 2002.

Just a year after joining Reston's staff, Ms. Harris tried to kill herself twice by overdosing on medications. One of her suicide attempts was with Dilaudid, court records show, which she diverted from Reston's supplies. The incident landed her in Virginia's Health Practitioners Intervention Program, an alternative to discipline that let Ms. Harris keep her nursing license.

Ms. Harris worked without incident until 2007, when she obtained a prescription for the sedative Lunesta, which violated the terms of her HPIP contract. Reston, however, did not discipline her for the slip-up. In 2008, Ms. Harris made 4 medication administration errors. She was also warned in 2007, 2008 and 2009 job performance reviews of deficiencies in her abilities to cooperate with co-workers and make sound judgments and decisions.

Then on August 4, 2009, Ms. Harris failed to show up for work and did not call in to explain her absence. Court records show she claimed to have been knocked unconscious during a fall at home. A short time after the alleged fall, she was seen driving on the wrong side of a local road. She was transported by ambulance to a hospital - not Reston - where a CT scan was negative and doctors could not say for certain that she was concussed. She did, however, test positive for benzodiazepines.

Reston suspended Ms. Harris for 3 days for failing to call out of work. Her first day back following the suspension would be her last.

Ms. Harris' co-workers were alarmed by her erratic behavior, and notified surgical managers that she appeared and acted impaired. Ms. Harris was pulled from the floor. A subsequent investigation revealed that she had administered several medications to patients that day, even though she admitted to experiencing "waves of disorientation" that caused her to have no recollection of portions of her shift. A blood test taken that day revealed no traces of drugs or alcohol, although Ms. Harris admitted to taking Cymbalta, Clonazepam, Ambien and Tylenol on the test consent form.

After being fired, Ms. Harris claimed she was discriminated against because of a perceived disability of either alcohol or drug addiction harbored by hospital administrators because of her 2003 suicide attempts. The court, however, ruled there was no evidence Reston knew or believed Ms. Harris had issues with drugs or alcohol and terminated her because she was unable to perform essential functions of her job in an impaired state. The court also ruled that Reston considered the numerous written warnings it had issued about her past performance as well as the suspension she received for failing to call out from work.

Reston "consistently accommodated Ms. Harris during her employment," the court stated. "Her actions gave the hospital legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons to terminate employment."

Attorneys for Ms. Harris and Reston Hospital Center did not respond to requests for comment.

Daniel Cook