LOS ANGELES – A Black, gay orthopedic surgeon is suing Los Angeles County, USC-Keck and their health-related entities as well as UCLA Health, alleging she was subjected to racial and disability discrimination and that one supervisor carried a gun while on duty.
Dr. Melani Cargle’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges race and disability discrimination, retaliation, failure to engage in the interactive process and defamation. Cargle seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the suit brought Thursday.
A USC spokeswoman issued a statement regarding the suit.
“As it did with Dr. Cargle, USC takes great care to provide all of its medical trainees with a professional and welcoming educational experience that is free from discrimination, harassment or retaliation,” the statement read. “Her claims against USC lack merit, and we look forward to addressing them in court.”
A UCLA Health representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Cargle underwent her medical training at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine between August 2015 and June 2020. Cargle was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the fall of 2015 during her first year of medical school by a UCLA psychiatrist.
In July 2019, Dr. Cargle began her orthopedic surgery rotation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, where her supervisor for learning purposes carried a firearm, sometimes concealed and other times in a fanny pack, the suit states. When Cargle once asked the supervisor in the operating room what was in his fanny pack, he laughed, the suit states.
When Cargle scrubbed into surgery with her boss and his team, she and the others were “recipients of extremely inappropriate sexist and sexual comments” from the supervisor, who also made a gay slur, the suit states. Cargle additionally was “aware” that the supervisor used the “N-word” when referring to some patients, residents and students, the suit states.
Cargle complained to hospital management about her supervisor, but the issues remained unresolved despite reassurances to her that something would be done, the suit states.
In March 2020, Cargle joined USC/Keck’s orthopedic surgery residency program, where the chief resident in the hand surgery program called her “stupid,” “useless” and an “idiot,” the suit states.
“You need to … get yourself together and find a better system,” the chief resident told Cargle, according to her suit.
During a meeting with supervisors in which she explained that she used a charting system that was best for her in light of her disability, the bosses refused to accept her accommodation request and demanded that she chart in the way that they preferred, according to the suit.
When her program’s leadership allegedly failed to support or accommodate her, Cargle turned to social media outlets such as Twitter to vent about her negative experiences, the suit states.
Cargle also did an orthopedic trauma rotation at Los Angeles General Hospital beginning in December 2020, the suit states.
In May 2022, Cargle received a letter from the county’s Department of Human Resources notifying her that her period of time to mediate her claims against her UCLA supervisor had closed, according to the suit. The communication came a week prior to her receiving a notice of intent to terminate from her program at the time, the suit states.
The next month, Cargle’s peers told her that the county sent out an e- mail personally attacking her and saying that her allegations against her UCLA supervisor and the county were “entirely false and that she was lying,” causing severe damage to her reputation, the suit states.
