ADA: “Implication” Sufficient for Jury to Decide Whether Employee Adequately Requested Accommodation

​A U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit concluded that whether a respiratory therapist adequately requested a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for her inability to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was a question of fact to be determined by a jury.

The respiratory therapist, who had taken time away from work under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for corrective neck surgery, provided her hospital employer with a "return to work" form on which her physician had detailed the therapist's physical restrictions. These included, among other parameters, not lifting,...