CONCORD — A federal court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Dartmouth-Hitchcock brought by a physician who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and alleged that D-H discriminated against her when it fired her in 2015.

Dr. Lacey Colligan first brought the suit in 2016, seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief. The case centered around her termination from a contracted position conducting medical research for D-H following an exchange with the wife of John Birkmeyer, who was then a top D-H executive, at the Birkmeyers’ Hanover home.

The judge in the case, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph DiClerico Jr., had dismissed seven claims in the suit in 2019, but three remained when — in March — the parties in the case came to an agreement, which has not been made public, and asked for the case’s dismissal. DiClerico granted that request.

The March 4 dismissal with prejudice means that Colligan cannot bring the case again. The dismissal is conditioned on the court “retaining enforcement jurisdiction” relating to a section of the settlement agreement related to “changes to conditions, limitations and restrictions upon Plaintiff’s access to Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s public property and/or healthcare services based upon any events occurring prior the Effective Date of the Agreement.”

Colligan, who is now 60 and lives outside of the Upper Valley in New Hampshire with her husband John, has not been able to find work, she said in a Monday phone interview. They still own their Hanover home, but are renting it out, she said.

“I love working,” said Colligan, a pediatrician and expert in patient safety issues. “It’s very difficult not to be working right now.”

She declined to comment on the case against D-H and directed questions to her attorneys at the Concord-based firm Shaheen & Gordon. One of them, Bill Christie, said via email Monday that the case had been “resolved.”

Dartmouth-Hitchcock spokeswoman Audra Burns declined to comment in a Monday email.

Colligan, a 1991 graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said in court filings that she went to the Birkmeyers one morning in 2015 in an effort to warn them about seeing a strange car in their driveway. She became flustered, which she attributed to her PTSD, and the Birkmeyers interpreted the interaction as threatening. John Birkmeyer reported the incident to D-H, which then severed ties with Colligan. She also lost a position she held at Geisel School of Medicine as a result.

Colligan’s PTSD stems from the death of her 21-year-old daughter by cardiac arrest in 2012 in Virginia. Colligan was at the University of Virginia Health System training to become a faculty member specializing in care for newborn children when she found her daughter, not breathing and without a pulse, according to a 2014 article she wrote about the experience. In the article, she advocates for giving family members the option of being present in the room while doctors are attempting life-saving efforts in emergency departments.

The claims remaining when the case against D-H was dismissed included denial of access to public accommodation, discrimination and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

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