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A former Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania doctor who sued her employer for pregnancy discrimination—and won—is again suing the hospital and former colleagues for allegedly spreading a rumor that she was a risk to patients.

The defamation lawsuit was filed by Dr. Kaede Ota, who in 2018 entered into a $500,000 settlement with CHOP to resolve claims that her boss, Dr. Robert Doms, discriminated and retaliated against her in connection with her maternity leave.

Now, Ota alleges that Doms, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine Dean Dr. Suzanne Rose, and a medical student damaged her reputation by sending an email to the Perelman student body containing "false and defamatory statements about Dr. Ota to serve their purpose of damaging Dr. Ota's reputation and professional standing," according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleged that medical student and student government president Elizabeth Duckworth was encouraged by Doms and Rose to send an email to 500 other students claiming that Ota was a risk to patient safety while she was employed by CHOP and Penn.

Ota is represented by Console Mattiacci in Philadelphia. Lawyer Stephen Console declined to comment on the case. The defendants have not yet filed a response to Ota's lawsuit and CHOP did not respond to a request for comment. Penn also did not respond to a request for comment.

Ota claimed she found out about the April 2019 email after she was contacted by another Penn doctor who had received it, the complaint said. The email purportedly summarized a meeting that took place between medical students and Penn in which they expressed concern about Doms continuing to teach after CHOP settled Ota's pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.

According to the complaint, the email read, in part, "Dr. Ota displayed a pattern of behavior that raised concern about her ability to maintain inter-professional relationships as well as concerns about patient safety, which led to Dr. Ota's eventual demotion and departure."

Ota, in the complaint, alleged the statement was false, and pointed out that Doms, who allegedly criticized her on a routine basis, acknowledged in performance reviews that she deserved "full credit" for safety metrics. The complaint also said that Ota had never been reported or sued.

Ota claimed the email made no mention of the discrimination lawsuit against CHOP and Doms. "The email similarly was void of any details about other complaints by employees implicating conduct of defendant Doms as being discriminatory toward women and/or retaliatory toward those who complained of sex discrimination," the complaint said.