Over the past few years there have been an increasing number of stories about doctors who sexually abuse their patients. Almost all are serial abusers. They don’t just abuse one patient; they abuse multiple patients over the years until they either retire, die, or are caught. What is truly troubling, and is the subject of this post, is that many of them are well-known, well-respected doctors, who work at leading hospitals or universities. In many cases, the hospital or university has had complaints or reasons to investigate the doctors, but have done nothing. Why not, you ask? If you have to ask, you have not been paying attention. The answer is, as it so often is, our old friend money. When given a choice between money, prestige, and power or the welfare of its patients, most institutions will choose the money, prestige, and power every time.
Dr. David Newman was a superstar emergency medicine physician at one of New York City’s most prestigious hospitals. He was the author of a book on the physician-patient relationship and had written several essays, which appeared in the New York Times. He also abused women who came to the emergency department. When he failed to sedate a female patient enough to make her oblivious to his groping her and ejaculating on her face, she immediately complained and sought DNA testing, which confirmed the assault. As part of his plea deal, Dr. Newman, admitted to sexually abusing three other women in the emergency department. There may have been many others for whom his efforts at sedation were successful or who were too embarrassed or frightened to report him. How can a doctor get enough privacy at a busy emergency department to perform such acts without anyone even suspecting? I suggest he cannot. It is highly likely that people around him knew or suspected and decided to keep their mouths shut. After he was accused of serial assaults, the hospital refused to release medical records which might substantiate the assaults until ordered to do so by the courts. The hospital was protecting itself to the end.
Dr. Larry Nassar was employed by Michigan State University in its health system to treat students. He was also a team doctor for USA Gymnastics, where he treated young female athletes. He used these two positions to sexually abuse hundreds of young women over the years despite years of complaints about his behavior.
Dr. Richard Strauss worked in the health system at the Ohio State University from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. During that period, he abused hundreds of young men under the guise of performing hernia checks after they suffered what were often unrelated sports injuries. The law firm hired by the university to conduct an investigation found that coaches and administrators at the university knew for over twenty years that Dr. Strauss was sexually abusing male students but failed to take any action to stop him.
Dr. George Tyndall was a gynecologist employed by the University of Southern California in its student health program where he regularly abused young women. He worked at USC for almost thirty years before being allowed to quietly resign with a large payout in 2017. Complaints about Dr. Tyndall began in the 1990’s, but the university took no action. Ultimately, the university paid out over $1 billion dollars to settle various class action suits arising out of its failure to deal with Dr. Tyndall.
Dr. Derrick Todd, who worked as a rheumatologist at the world-famous Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, has been accused by over 120 women of conducting unnecessary breast, pelvic and rectal exams for his own sexual gratification. According to the allegations, the sexual abuse took place over a period of at least 10 years. Dr. Todd denies the allegations against him. The allegations are working their way through the courts.
Dr. Robert Hadden was an OB/GYN at Columbia University’s medical center. He has been accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women over a 20 year period. Columbia had been warned about Dr. Hadden early in that period, but took no action, which allowed him to continue to abuse women patients. Even after he was arrested for assaulting a patient, the hospital permitted him to continue to treat patients. Here is a link to a story about how Columbia protected Dr. Hadden and exposed women to the risk of sexual assault. Dr. Hadden pled guilty to state charges and was convicted of federal charges related to sexual abuse.
These are just a few of the stories of doctors using their status and position to sexually assault patients.
There are many reasons why a woman or young man might not want to report that a doctor had sexually assaulted her or him. They may fear embarrassment, ridicule, disbelief, or shame. There is a clear power imbalance between a patient and a doctor. Some of the accused doctors knew this and were quite brazen and open about what they were doing to their patients, almost daring them to report the assault.
When a doctor is permitted to serially abuse patients for years and years, there are almost always going to have been red flags to alert those in a position of authority that something is going on. It is incumbent upon those in authority to be alert to those red flags and to protect the public from these predators. They cannot, as they so often do, turn their heads and pretend not to see.
