A Massachusetts specialist who allegedly continued to offer inappropriate intimate exams to his patients was accused of sexual abuse by 85 of them, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday.
“He did things that were substandard, that were not typical of a normal pelvic exam, and at that point I felt suspicious,” Samantha Sullivan, one of the pursuers, said in an interview with CBS News.
On Wednesday, more than 85 former patients of Dr. Derrick Todd used her voice to denounce the man who allegedly made her undergo inappropriate pelvic, breast and rectal exams during “primary care” appointments, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Suffolk County Superior Court.
This is the third lawsuit against the doctor who specializes in rheumatology, that is, what surrounds the bones, the spine, the muscles and the joints. But according to the authorities, a further increase in the number of victims is to be expected.
“He specializes in very rare autoimmune rheumatologic diseases, which I also suffer from,” another former patient, Mimi DiTrani, reportedly said in an earlier lawsuit, claiming he insisted instead of having a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of his bones that gynecological exams and breast exams be repeated, according to CBS Boston.
Another of his alleged victims, Sabrina Soini, allegedly underwent a “45-minute pelvic massage” after which he asked her “all sorts of extremely inappropriate and personal questions about your sex life,” she told American media.
“These investigations were conducted for his own sexual gratification,” the court document said, specifying that the horrific and traumatic acts “occurred as early as 2011 and continued until the initiation of an investigation in July 2023.” ” and his firing, CBS News reported.