A serious New York hospital system is being accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse allegations in opposition to one among its medical doctors — once more, based on a pair of latest lawsuits.
The recent allegations in opposition to Northwell Well being Programs come because the healthcare community additionally faces greater than two dozen claims tied to a different physician, Darius Paduch, who was just lately sentenced to life in jail for abusing lots of of sufferers.
Within the fits filed Tuesday, two sufferers alleged they had been abused by Dr. Dennis Feihel between 2022 and 2023 whereas he labored as a major care doctor with a give attention to LGBTQ+ sufferers at Lenox Hill Hospital, which is owned by Northwell.
They declare the Higher East Aspect hospital and its mother or father system failed to research their complaints as they had been being sexually abused, based on the Manhattan Supreme Courtroom fits.
“Northwell Well being had acquired quite a few complaints concerning different physicians sexually assaulting its sufferers,” the lawsuits state, “nevertheless it did not institute insurance policies and procedures to guard its sufferers from this recognized hazard.”
Notably, the alleged abuse occurred throughout and after the first lawsuit was filed in opposition to Paduch in 2022.
The sicko urologist was convicted of abusing male sufferers, a few of them minors, beneath the guise of medical therapy over greater than a decade whereas working at Northwell and different prestigious establishments — Weill Cornell Medical Heart, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia College. He was sentenced in November 2024.
Each of the brand new fits, filed beneath pseudonyms, don’t title Feihel as a defendant however want to maintain Northwell’s alleged negligence to account, a spokesperson for the victims stated, with the hopes that the physician can be criminally charged.
One sufferer, going by his initials S.H., stated that Feihel allegedly sexually abused him by “forcibly touching, caressing, and groping [his] penis” in August 2022.
The opposite alleged sufferer, recognized as I.B., claims he was abused between 2022 and 2023, with the physician “digitally, anally penetrating” him and “rubbing his personal erect penis,” along with additionally groping the affected person’s genitals, based on the go well with.
“Sadly, this isn’t an remoted incident,” claimed Mallory Allen, legal professional for Feihel’s alleged victims and a accomplice at Seattle, Washington-based legislation agency PCVA LAW.
Allen additionally represents over 140 former Paduch sufferers, with Northwell — the state’s largest healthcare supplier and personal employer — named as a defendant in 30 of these lawsuits.
“Identical to Dr. Paduch, Dr. Feihel was ready to make use of his place of immense belief to sexually abuse sufferers who went to him looking for medical care,” Allen stated.
“The truth that Northwell Well being had two physicians sexually abusing its sufferers throughout the identical time interval, regardless of repeated complaints, reveals a disturbing systemic failure and disrespect for affected person security.”
One other since-settled lawsuit filed by Allen in opposition to Northwell in 2023 claimed that Feihel masturbated a male affected person and rubbed his personal penis in March 2023.
“Northwell Well being and Lenox Hill’s misconduct was so stunning and outrageous that it exceeds the affordable bounds of decency as measured by what the common member of the group would tolerate and demonstrates an utter disregard of the results that will comply with,” the go well with states.
Feihel, who seems to now be working towards medication in Michigan, didn’t return a message left on a quantity listed for him.
“Dr. Feihel is now not employed by Northwell, and has not been since December 2023,” stated Northwell spokesperson Joseph Kemp. “Northwell Well being strives to supply the very best degree of care to its sufferers, and we take allegations comparable to these made within the criticism critically. We’re unable to remark additional at the moment because of the litigation.”
Lots of of former sufferers have filed intercourse abuse lawsuits in opposition to Northwell and Paduch, many by way of a soon-to-close look-back window allowed beneath town’s Gender Motivated Violence Act, which permits survivors to sue establishments and abusers past the present nine-year statute of limitations.
