Greater than 60 former sufferers file class motion swimsuit in opposition to ex-Brigham doc accused of sexual abuse

Well being

In a brand new lawsuit, dozens of Dr. Derrick Todd’s former sufferers allege that the rheumatologist carried out inappropriate breast, pelvic, and rectal exams.

Dr. Derrick Todd is now going through dozens of sexual abuse allegations after greater than 60 sufferers filed a category motion lawsuit in opposition to the previous Brigham and Girls’s Hospital doctor on Wednesday.

They allege that the rheumatologist — who left Brigham and Girls’s in July — carried out “inappropriate pelvic examinations, breast examinations, and rectal examinations on sufferers … for his personal sexual gratification.” 

Wednesday’s grievance is the third lawsuit filed in opposition to Todd throughout the previous two weeks; the earlier lawsuits made related allegations of medically pointless breast and pelvic exams. 

Invoice Thompson, a lawyer with Lubin & Meyer — the agency that introduced the category motion swimsuit — stated 65 former sufferers had signed on as of Wednesday afternoon. He additionally stated he expects that quantity will proceed to climb. 

“Sufferers who suffered by the hands of Dr. Todd shouldn’t endure alone,” he advised Boston.com in an e mail. “There’s energy in numbers and collectively we are able to get up and say this isn’t OK.”  

The lawsuit names a wide selection of defendants other than Todd, together with physicians he labored underneath and the establishments the place he practiced medication. Amongst them: Brigham and Girls’s Hospital; Brigham and Girls’s Faulkner Hospital; Charles River Medical Associates; Brigham and Girls’s Physicians Group; and Mass Common Brigham Neighborhood Physicians. 

The named plaintiff within the lawsuit, Hull resident Nancy Larsen, stated Todd carried out “inappropriate and unauthorized breast and pelvic examinations” on her starting in 2020 and persevering with by means of 2023. 

She’s bringing the lawsuit on behalf of herself and different sufferers who have been allegedly subjected to bodily exams that weren’t medically indicated. 

“These horrifying, traumatizing, and deplorable acts passed off over years, from at the least way back to 2011 and persevering with by means of July, 2023, at which era Dr. Todd was investigated by the Brigham and Girls’s Hospital and the Board of Registration in Medication, and formally resigned,” the swimsuit states.  

Todd agreed final month to cease practising medication in Massachusetts and in different states, although his voluntary settlement doesn’t admit to wrongdoing. 

“To the extent that anybody is bringing claims in opposition to him, Dr. Todd believes that he has performed nothing improper and can defend in opposition to such claims vigorously,” his lawyer, Ingrid Martin, stated final week in an announcement on his behalf. “We’re cooperating totally with any investigation by the Board of Registration in Medication.”

What now?

Brigham and Girls’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Charles Morris stated in an announcement Tuesday that the hospital has reached out to Todd’s present and former sufferers. He inspired Todd’s sufferers to name 617-732-7081 in the event that they haven’t already spoken with somebody on the hospital. 

“We deeply remorse the hurt Dr. Todd’s actions has prompted our sufferers and their households,” Morris stated. “We take our obligation to look after our sufferers and preserve them secure extraordinarily critically. We’ve got, and at all times will, act decisively on any allegations of misconduct, as we did on this case.” 

Charles River Medical Associates Director Dr. Joseph Harrington — who is known as within the class motion swimsuit — stated in a earlier assertion that the group is “dissatisfied and saddened by these disturbing allegations” and that it is usually within the technique of speaking with sufferers. 

Thompson stated Lubin & Meyer hopes Wednesday’s lawsuit “brings about accountability for these ladies, each by way of compensation for what was performed to them, but in addition to lift consciousness and stop something like this from occurring ever once more.”

He added: “As increasingly ladies come ahead, it’s changing into increasingly apparent that Dr. Todd’s supervisors on the hospitals and inside his workplace apply both knew and didn’t act, or didn’t know, which is each astonishing and inexcusable as this conduct was happening repeatedly over a few years proper underneath their noses.”