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Medical
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse by medical professionals
is very common. Many cases are never reported because patients
are embarrassed or fear that they won’t be believed. Also,
we are often pushed to believe that because something was done
under guise of medical care that it is acceptable. Our society
rarely educates us about how to prevent sexual abuse by medical
professionals because doctors are experts and social norms dictate
that we are not to question them.
Our web site only includes cases of abuse by medical
professionals that are in the news. Many medical professionals
get away with abuse without ever getting in trouble.
Common examples of inappropriate
behavior by medical professionals include:
- Touching a patient inappropriately
- Making inappropriate sexual advances
- Watching a patient undress.
- Taking advantage of a patient under sedation
or anesthesia (one example includes the ENT surgeon, Dr.
Twana Sparks who performed unnecessary genital exams on
male patients)
- Performing intimate procedures / tasks on anesthetized
patients without their prior expressed consent.
Such tasks include performing pelvic, breast, rectal, prostate,
and genital exams, inserting urinary catheters, shaving of the
pubic / groin area, bathing, removing the gown or underwear,
etc.
- Performing inappropriate and unnecessary medical
examinations of private parts (some examples include a 14
year old girl going in for strep throat who ended up having
a Pap smear and a male doctor conducting unnecessary breast
exams on girls for sports physicals)
- Making inappropriate sexual jokes or remarks
- Taking photos or videos of a patient's private
parts without their express consent. Some examples include:
Dr.
George Tyndall, Dr.
Paul Becton, and Dr.
Nikita Levy (all were male OB/GYNs).
- Ignoring a patient’s wishes that she/he
does not want a medical professional of the opposite sex present
for any procedure that involve private parts. One example
is a lady who was told that her religious convictions would
be accommodated by ensuring there would be no males present
for her C-Section. A male nurse touched her naked body against
her wishes.
- Inviting medical students into the room during
an exam without asking the patient for permission.
Many web sites that address how to prevent sexual
abuse by doctors share that intimate examinations are okay if
a medical professional wears gloves. While it is true that many
medical professionals have abused patients without wearing gloves,
there are accounts of medical professionals who violated their
patients with gloves on as well. For example, Chuck
Christian who was abused by Dr. Robert Anderson who performed
many unnecessary rectal exams with gloves on. Chuck Christian
now has PTSD as a result of his medical experience, and every
time a doctor puts on gloves, it triggers him.
Doctors should always wear gloves for sterility and infection
control purposes when they perform any procedure. But
it is not for the purpose of preventing sexual abuse. For example,
society would not dismiss a case of a woman who was raped by a
man who wore a condom. This rapist may wear a condom to ensure
that the woman does not get pregnant or that his semen won't be
found on the woman to make it harder to prosecute him.
Furthermore, Federal law criminalizes non-consensual
sexual contact either directly or through clothing with intimate
areas of the body, specifically the “anus, groin, breast,
inner thigh, or buttocks.”
We encourage everyone to check out tips
about how to prevent sexual abuse by medical professionals.
Sources:
Cohen
v. Smith, 269 Ill. App. 3d 1087 | Casetext Search + Citator
Physician
Sexual Misconduct - Federation of State Medical Boards
Federation
of State Medical Boards – Physician Sexual Misconduct, Part
1
Federation
of State Medical Boards – Physician Sexual Misconduct, Part
2
National
Council of State Boards of Nursing and Sexual Misconduct
Alleged
sex abuse kept a Michigan football player away from doctors for
decades. He now has stage 4 cancer
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