Brigham and Women’s Hospital is facing a major lawsuit alleging that one of its doctors, who has since voluntarily quit practicing, was performing unnecessary sexualized “exams” of women who went to him for help with unrelated ailments.
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“I have decided to come forward because someone must. Nature has taught us there is safety in numbers. I want anyone who was harmed in the way that I was to know they are not alone, and there is nothing to fear,” she continued with a clear voice despite being visually emotional during the press conference. “I want to be the voice for the voiceless and encourage them to speak. In so doing, we can ensure this does not happen again, and that the healing process can begin.”
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“He used his position of trust and authority as a doctor with Brigham and Women’s to aggressively groom and coerce his patients with breast and vaginal exams that were medically unnecessary and well outside the scope of the care that he was there to provide for his patients,” Perkins continued.
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That resume includes a Yale University undergraduate education and both a PhD and an MD from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, according to his LinkedIn profile. He began his career with stints as a fellow in immunology at Harvard School of Public Health and a residency in internal medicine at MassGeneral, according to his state Board of Registration in Medicine profile.
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And thus began a relationship between doctor and patient, which the complaint describes as “inherently imbalanced.”
“The knowledge, skills and training required of the doctor to appropriately treat the patient places the doctor … in a position of power,” the complaint states. “The patient … on the other hand, enters the medical treatment from a position of vulnerability due to the illness and suffering that brings them to the physician.”
The “treatment” began at Charles River Medical Associates medical offices in Framingham, according to the complaint, but upon the first day, “Defendant Todd began subjecting her to a course of predatory grooming, boundary violating, mental, emotional and physical sexual abuse that was masked by his position of power and authority over Plaintiff in dire need of treatment” marked by what DiTrani described as “very, very” personal and sexual comments inappropriate for a doctor.
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“We deeply regret the harm Dr. Todd’s actions has caused our patients and their families. We take our duty to care for our patients and keep them safe extremely seriously. We have, and always will, act decisively on any allegations of misconduct, as we did in this case,” Dr. Charles Morris, the chief medical officer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote in a statement Tuesday.
The hospital said that it received two anonymous complaints against Todd in April and launched its own investigation and instructed Todd to not perform sensitive exams without a chaperone. By the end of July, the hospital terminated Todd and worked to transition his patients to other doctors.
Morris urged former Todd patients who have not yet reached out to the hospital to call them.
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Full Story: BostonHerald October 10 2023
