A Montreal family doctor has just received a serious seven-year ban for massaging the breasts and buttocks of a young patient who, without her knowledge, filmed him during a consultation for back pain last year.
Dr. Alain Élias Samuel Benhamron, a doctor for 37 years, was just dismissed for seven years, the disciplinary council of the College of Physicians of Quebec (CMQ) ruled in a Sept. 14 decision.
“The defendant under the pretext of medical treatment carried out unjustified touching of this patient for several minutes, particularly on her breasts and buttocks,” the council writes.
Back pain
The 21-year-old patient, whose identity is protected, consulted Dr. Benhamron in March 2022 for back, neck and wrist pain. During this follow-up examination, the doctor “behaved inappropriately. “She doesn’t really understand the way he touches her,” the ruling says.
However, the woman convinces herself that he is just doing his job and that she should consider herself lucky to have a doctor to do follow-up visits, the document says.
However, on May 30, 2022, the doctor “went beyond the limits with his touches”.
“The patient has the impression that her body no longer belongs to her and that she is becoming her object. Annoy […] She spends sleepless nights crying and has no understanding of what happened,” it said.
The guardian even described this multiple touching as “sexual assault,” according to the verdict.
On June 27, 2022, the woman decided to film the consultation without the doctor’s knowledge. “She can barely watch the whole video. “She feels the respondent’s hands all over her body and feels mistreated by a doctor she trusts,” it says.
The record provided to the trustee shows that the doctor recommended the patient receive a back massage “for medical reasons.” She agreed and lay on her stomach.
She takes off her camisole
First, the doctor alternated “between the back, sides and buttocks” and stroked the left breast. He then took off his gloves and the patient agreed that he should apply oil. The doctor then asked her to take off her tank top so as not to “dirty” her.
The woman then had to turn around and partially covered her breasts with her camisole. Dr. Benhamron refilled the oil. “He lingers on the breasts, caresses them and grabs them,” the council writes.
He then offers her a jacket to cover herself with and places it over her breasts. However, he continued to massage her under his clothes. At the end of the session, the doctor told him that “it was a good muscle manipulation session.”
In total the massage lasted about forty minutes. The doctor met with the trustee in September 2022 and denied intentionally touching the patient’s buttocks and breasts. He admitted the matter after being confronted with a video recording.
“He lies with confidence, especially about the duration of the touch, the nature of the actions he performed, the course of the session and the way the patient is dressed,” the council writes.
Since the lawsuit was filed in October 2022, the doctor had voluntarily agreed to give up his practice as a doctor.
Dr. Benhamron had no disciplinary history but was the subject of a previous investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. The complaint did not result in disciplinary action, but the administrator asked the doctor to “seriously and self-critically examine” the patient’s statement.