Seventeen former patients at a Valencia, California, chiropractor's office have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that a doctor at the facility secretly recorded patients as they undressed before their chiropractic sessions. Among the plaintiffs are four minors. The lawsuit accuses 40-year-old Nicholas Vanderhyde, a chiropractor at... Read More »
Over 80 Women Accuse Boston Doctor of Sexual Abuse in New Class-Action Lawsuit
Over 80 women have come together in a newly filed class action lawsuit against a Boston area doctor. The lawsuit, which was filed in Massachusetts state court earlier this month, accuses Dr. Derrick Todd of engaging in sexually abusive medical exams. At least 82 women have come together in a class action lawsuit. This new lawsuit comes after two other victims filed separate lawsuits with similar claims. Prior to the lawsuits coming out, Dr. Todd voluntarily surrendered his medical license in September after officials began investigating the claims against him.
Todd worked at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a practitioner and during his time there, his victims accused him of sexually abusing them while conducting pelvic and breast exams.
The medical malpractice accusations against Todd paint him as a predatory doctor who forced his patients into unnecessary exams so that he could fulfill his sexual desires.
One of Todd’s Victims, Sabrina Soini, shared in an interview with local outlet WBZ, “It was a 45-minute pelvic massage that at the end he had you sit down, and he talked with you, and he asked you all kinds of extremely inappropriate and personal questions about your sex life.”
Soini’s sister, Samantha Sullivan, also talked about her abuse at the hands of Todd, explaining, “He was doing things that weren’t standard, weren’t typical of any normal gynecological exam and at that point, you know, I felt suspicious.” Sullivan explains that she left the hospital thinking “I think my doctor just sexually assaulted me.”
Sullivan added, “When you would go into his office, he would be really present. And he would seem like he had a lot of compassion and was really concerned about you.” Sullivan also shared that Todd would regularly text her after hours to check on her and see how she was doing following an appointment.
Todd pushed back on the allegations made against him, with his attorney, Ingrid Martin, explaining in a statement, “To the extent that anyone is making a claim against him, Dr. Todd believes that he has done nothing wrong and will defend against it vigorously.” Martin adds, “Over the course of his career he has been an outstanding rheumatologist and internist.”
The class action suit makes claims to the contrary, saying that Todd violated his patients via exams that were “performed for his own sexual gratification.” The complaint says Todd’s inappropriate behavior could be traced as far back as 2011. And that Todd “had thousands of patients over his tenure/career and he likely assaulted a large number of those patients.”
The class action lawsuit targets not only Todd but also those who employed him, physician organizations, and other physicians who worked alongside him. At least four physicians who had positions of authority at the hospital are named as defendants in the lawsuit. Included among the defendants are Charles River Medical Associates; Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital; Mass General Brigham, the hospital’s parent company; two physician organizations Todd belonged to, and at least ten individuals who are unnamed but are described as supervisory or administrative professionals who represent the corporate defendants.
Some of the defendants have spoken out against the lawsuits, with the most recent statement coming from Charles River Medical Associates. The organization says, “At no time, up until and including his last day at our Framingham office on July 26th of this year, did we receive, nor were we made aware of, any complaints from patients, staff, or any other physicians about inappropriate conduct by Dr. Todd,” adding “While we are still reviewing the complaints, we are disappointed and saddened by these disturbing allegations and recognize the courage it takes for these patients to come forward.”
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