Former Seattle Children’s doctor wins $21M in discrimination lawsuit

SEATTLE – A jury on Monday found Seattle Children’s hospital created a hostile work environment based on race against Dr. Benjamin Danielson, the former medical director of the hospital’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic.

The jury awarded $21 million in damages in the racial discrimination case, concluding a weekslong trial that centered on the effects of systemic racism in the workplace and in health care, and the hospital’s responsibility to address it.

“I’m in shock,” Danielson said in an interview shortly after the verdict was read. “I’m full of deep gratitude to the jury. There have been so many amazing people from the community, from this journey, willing to show up.”

Danielson, who is Black, led the clinic for over two decades, positioning himself as a well-known advocate for increasing health care access for marginalized communities. Founded more than 50 years ago and named after a prominent community organizer who called attention to the disparate treatment and health outcomes of Black people, the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic primarily serves families of color and low-income families.

Danielson sued the hospital system last year after resigning in November 2020, accusing Seattle Children’s of allowing institutional racism to fester for years and retaliating against him when he called attention to it. His resignation set off a wave of public outcry and spurred the hospital system to launch an independent investigation.

After the verdict was read, the two parties gathered on opposite ends of the hallway outside the courtroom. After a few minutes, Danielson, his wife and his attorneys reacted to the decision with hugs and laughter. Down the hall, a team from Children’s sat quietly.

“As the region’s largest, independent nonprofit children’s hospital, our priority is to ensure every child has access to high quality, equitable care regardless of the ability to pay and to support the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic mission to deliver quality care with dignity,” a Children’s spokesperson said in a statement following the verdict.

The statement continued, “Based on the lack of evidence presented, we are extremely disappointed in this extraordinary award and are evaluating our options.”

Danielson said that while he was thankful for the support of his wife and team of lawyers, the trial was not easy to endure.

“I did not anticipate how much retraumatization it’d be and how hard it’d be to have those things negated,” he said.

Hostile workplace or frustrated leader?

In his lawsuit, Danielson alleged the hospital created a hostile work environment, “including by permitting the use of racial slurs, failing to remedy known incidents of systemic racism, fostering an environment of conformity to the status quo of racial inequity, and subjecting its Black and Brown employees to a double standard of conduct.”

“He had to show up at an institution every day for work where racial issues were so pervasive and so predominant that … it made it difficult for him as a Black man to go into a white space,” said Rebecca Roe, one of Danielson’s attorneys, during closing statements Thursday.

Attorneys representing Seattle Children’s attacked those claims during the trial. The hospital argued Danielson is a talented, charismatic pediatrician who refused feedback on his leadership and who was frustrated to not have complete control over funding decisions related to the clinic and its expansion to a second location.

“He didn’t quit because he needed to do so in order to force change, in order to compel a reckoning,” said Portia Moore, an attorney representing Seattle Children’s, during closing statements. “He quit because he realized that he would no longer be able to unilaterally dictate how OBCC, including OBCC Othello, would be run.”

Attorneys for both parties agreed in closing statements systemic racism is pervasive in America. Their arguments diverged from there.

Danielson’s attorneys presented evidence and offered witness testimonies that they say illustrate a workplace rife with disparities and repeatedly failing to address a culture of racism.

Danielson alleged when he and others expressed concerns money raised to expand the clinic’s services and build a second site was not being spent on the clinic – which they considered to be an equity issue – hospital leaders retaliated against him and launched an investigation into his leadership.

The hospital system chose to “sweep misconduct under the rug” when it learned of allegations that Dr. Jim Hendricks, then-president of Seattle Children’s Research Institute, referred to Danielson by a racial slur for Black people in 2009, his lawyer Roe argued in closing statements. (Hendricks was forced to resign in 2021 after Danielson’s allegations of the incident publicly surfaced; Hendricks denies having used the racial slur.)

Roe also argued the hospital was slow to address the disproportionate use of security against Black people, and reiterated testimony that people with sickle cell disease, a blood disorder that can cause severe pain and that overwhelmingly affects Black people, were undermedicated because of “a racial stereotype that they or their families were drug seeking.”

Danielson’s attorneys pointed to the summary of the independent investigation conducted by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s law firm. That investigation found the Seattle Children’s “culture of conflict avoidance and failure to address microaggressions, combined with widespread distrust in the Human Resources function, contributes to an environment that excludes and undervalues BIPOC workforce members,” among other issues.

The full report was never released publicly by the hospital, despite calls for transparency from a group of community members who oversaw the investigation, including Urban Indian Health Institute Director Abigail Echo-Hawk.

“They should’ve absolutely released the report. Seattle Children’s hospital lied to the community when they said they were going to be transparent … and this trial is evidence of that,” Echo-Hawk said Thursday, who attended closing statements to support Danielson.

Gaps in evidence

Seattle Children’s lawyers criticized the case for what they perceived as gaps in evidence, arguing Danielson’s team had failed to prove he had personally experienced incidents of racism outside of the “isolated” racial slur incident.

In their closing statement, Seattle Children’s said Danielson’s attorneys had not met their burden of proving “more probably true than not true” that a Seattle Children’s leader either participated in the language or conduct related to race that was unwelcome or offensive, or that management knew about – or should’ve known about – such issues and failed to address them.

The hospital argued it launched its investigation into Danielson in spring 2020 after receiving complaints from staff members. The hospital first received alleged HIPAA violation complaints related to him discussing two employees’ COVID diagnoses as part of the clinic’s contact-tracing measures. The hospital then received a complaint from a different employee alleging Danielson had retaliated against her and treated other Black female clinic staff members less favorably.

The internal investigation found Danielson had violated policy when he disclosed personal health information, and “partially substantiated the allegation of retaliation,” according to the hospital’s trial brief. It did not substantiate allegations that he treated women of color less favorably.

Seattle Children’s attorneys noted Danielson is not technically an employee of the hospital system, but is employed by the University of Washington. (Danielson’s lawyers said that was not relevant to the case, contending Seattle Children’s had control of Danielson’s workplace.)

Moore asked the jury to consider why Danielson remained at the hospital under Hendricks after learning about the alleged incident where he was referred to by a racial slur, and why he did not submit ethics complaints when he was told of patient complaints of possible bias from other doctors. She also suggested that Danielson, who had influence and power as the clinic’s leader, had some personal responsibility himself to address these issues.

Dr. Shaquita Bell, who now leads the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, testified for the hospital, saying when she took over as medical director of the Seattle Children’s Center for Diversity and Health in 2018, she felt the hospital system was committed to addressing racial disparities in care and that she was supported and given a “clear directive” to make improvements.

In a statement following the verdict, Danielson’s team of attorneys thanked their witnesses, the jurors and the community members who “stood by Dr. Danielson’s side against racism.”

“This is what a Reckoning looks like,” they said in the statement.

While he was grateful for the jury decision and stunned at the amount of money awarded, Danielson said there are “a lot of other people who suffer more in situations like this.”

“This does not fix racism,” he said. “These are wounds we’ll carry the rest of our lives, in some ways.”