Connect with us

Northeast

Hundreds accuse Massachusetts doctor of sexual abuse, inappropriate examinations

Published

on

Hundreds accuse Massachusetts doctor of sexual abuse, inappropriate examinations

More than a decade ago, Kristin Fritz was struggling with pain in her spine and saw a rheumatologist recommended by her doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The visit with Dr. Derrick Todd started normally for the 37-year-old New Hampshire woman. But as Todd progressed, he aggressively groped her breasts, she said, to the point that he “seemed to enjoy that a little too much.”

Only last year, when contacted by the hospital about Todd, she realized a line had been crossed. And she was not alone.

ATTACKS ON 3 FEMALE PASSENGERS ON SEPARATE FLIGHTS PROMPT WARNING ON UPTICK IN SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON PLANES

“I feel so violated,” she told The Associated Press. “I feel so ashamed of myself for not knowing better in the moment to do anything and to be like, yeah, this did feel wrong and I should tell somebody.”

Advertisement

The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify possible victims of sexual abuse, but Fritz allowed her name to be used. She is one of more than 200 women and several men who have joined a consolidated lawsuit against Todd in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court.

The lawsuit, combining several filed last year, accuses Todd of performing unnecessary pelvic floor therapy, breast examinations, testicular examinations and rectal examinations on patients.

Kristin Fritz, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Dr. Derrick Todd is seen on April 8, 2024, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Fritz and more than 200 women have accused Todd of sexually abusing them by performing unnecessary pelvic and breast exams while under his care. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

It alleges that Todd — a former rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital whose specialty involves treating inflammatory conditions of the muscles, joints and bones — began abusing patients in 2010. It also accused several dozen other defendants, including Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and Charles River Medical Associates, of knowing about the abuse and failing to stop it.

“It’s an extraordinary number of people who put their trust in Dr. Todd and who had that trust violated simply for his own personal, selfish gratification,” said William Thompson of Lubin & Meyer, whose Boston-based firm represents most of the victims.

Advertisement

“The other thing that strikes me about this case is how could this have been going on at the hospital, at the practice group for so long without somebody recognizing … that something suspicious was going on,” he continued. “Yet, they allowed him to continue to do this week after week, month after month, year after year, to more and more victims.”

A lawyer for Todd, Anthony Abeln, said his client would “not litigate this matter in the media, but he will defend his care as the case progresses through the Massachusetts Superior Court system.”

In April 2023, Brigham and Women’s received two anonymous complaints about Todd and launched an internal investigation. Todd was told he couldn’t conduct sensitive exams without a chaperone. In June, he was placed on administrative leave, then terminated a month later. The hospital said it also notified the Department of Public Health, the state Board of Registration in Medicine, law enforcement and his current and former patients.

In September, Todd reached a voluntary agreement with the Board of Registration in Medicine to stop practicing medicine anywhere in the country. No criminal charges have been filed against Todd but several former patients have been interviewed by law enforcement.

The Boston Globe reported last year Todd was under investigation by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson for the office said it would not comment on the case.

Advertisement

“We are deeply troubled by the upsetting allegations of harmful conduct committed by Dr. Todd,” the hospital said in a statement. “We take our duty to care for our patients and keep them safe extremely seriously. We have, and always will, act decisively on any allegations of misconduct, as we did in this case.”

The Charles River Medical Associates said it was never made aware of any complaints of “inappropriate conduct” by Todd and said it reached out to patients to report their concerns.

“We are deeply troubled and saddened by these disturbing allegations and recognize the courage it took for these patients to come forward,” it said in a statement.

Thompson said victims ranged in age from teenagers to women in their 60s. The lawsuit alleged Todd would gain their confidence, go beyond treating their rheumatic diseases and become their only doctor while conducting invasive, unnecessary exams.

Among them was a 33-year-old Massachusetts woman who struggled to find a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was thrilled Todd called to help her with symptoms of tingling and numbness in her arms and hands.

Advertisement

Over two years, Todd became her primary doctor and gynecologist and, the lawsuit said, the abuse intensified during her visits — including repeated vaginal exams. She said Todd would routinely comment on her body, ask her to strip naked and make sure she was unaccompanied during exams.

“It honestly impacted every single component of my life because it just occupies every part of myself from my self-confidence,” said the woman, who reported Todd to the medical board after discussing his behavior with her gynecologist and realizing something was wrong.

Since learning there were many others and that Todd would no longer practice medicine, she said a weight “has been lifted off my chest” though she struggles to cope. “Even just thinking about work is super challenging,” she said. “I’m really, really, really still struggling today, big time.”

As for Fritz, she acknowledged the experience will stay her for the rest of her life. But she takes solace in the fact that Todd is already paying a price for his actions.

Advertisement

“You were a trusted medical professional in a world class facility. You abused and violated many, many, many patients. It’s just not right,” Fritz said of Todd. “For me, justice is him never being able to practice again. Him never being able to do this to women or any other patient that he had done this to.”

Read the full article from Here

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Boston, MA

Man who allegedly shot at Boston Police officers arrested after foot chase in Dorchester

Published

on

Man who allegedly shot at Boston Police officers arrested after foot chase in Dorchester


A 20-year-old Boston man is facing a series of charges after prosecutors say he shot at Boston Police officers during an attempted stop in Dorchester before leading them on a foot chase through neighborhood backyards.

Rasiel Carbuccia was arraigned in Dorchester District Court Thursday on a list of charges, including assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying without a license and possession of a large capacity firearm, stemming from the Wednesday night incident near Devon and Laredo streets.

Opened fire with ghost gun, prosecutors say

According to prosecutors, Boston Police officers attempted to stop Carbuccia when he pulled out a gun and began shooting, striking a Boston police cruiser before fleeing the scene.

Investigators said Carbuccia ran through backyards and hopped fences before he was taken into custody. Officers did not fire their weapons during the encounter.

Advertisement

Prosecutors said investigators later recovered the firearm along the path where Carbuccia had been running.

“It was determined that the firearm was a ghost gun, and it did not possess a serial number,” Suffolk County prosecutor Jacqueline Martinelli said in court.

Union says “everyone should be outraged”

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, said the shooting is part of what he believes is a troubling trend of violence this summer and renewed his call for more officers on Boston streets.

“Everybody should be outraged. Bullets flying in the city’s streets at uniformed police officers. How can we possibly convince the general public that they’re safe to walk around their own neighborhoods?” Calderone said.

Rasiel Carbuccia allegedly opened fire on Boston Police officers in Dorchester. 

Advertisement

CBS Boston


“We have teenagers pulling firearms and stealing mopeds from others in broad daylight. We have shots being fired at police officers in uniform, officers being attacked, people being shot daily that we can’t solve the crimes,” he added.

No one was injured in the shooting, but Calderone said the outcome could have been much worse.

“Thank goodness, neither officer or a pedestrian, an innocent child or somebody in the middle of the evening did not get killed last night. Just as thankful, at least they caught him. They recovered the weapon,” he said.

Advertisement

After the arraignment, Carbuccia’s attorney declined to discuss the case in detail but indicated mental health issues could become part of the proceedings.

“Ultimately as you guys know this is a process that has to play out and he’s presumed innocent and there’s going to be a number of things that are going to come out in respect to mental health and potentially the investigation, I don’t really have much more to say beyond that,” attorney Bob White told reporters.

According to prosecutors, Carbuccia had two open assault cases and an active warrant at the time of his arrest.

He’s being held in jail without bail and is scheduled to return to court later this month for a dangerousness hearing.

Advertisement



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Pittsburg, PA

Pittsburgh-area family finds large void under garage of house built by Ryan Homes

Published

on

Pittsburgh-area family finds large void under garage of house built by Ryan Homes


A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.

“More than anything, we just want folks to know that there is potential that other homes could be built like this and just to be aware,”  said homeowner Nicole Holderfield.

Beneath their seemingly normal front-facing two-car garage in the Altman Farms neighborhood in North Huntingdon is a lot of dead space that the Holderfield family just found out about. They said having a secret room is not as cool as it sounds when you realize the structural integrity of the 30-year-old home is at risk. 

“I hate to say shocking, but it’s not something that we really wanted to be the first one on the street to find out,” Holderfield said.

Advertisement

Holderfield said there are leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe’s bucket down there.

A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.

(Photo: KDKA)


“You can actually stand all the way down here on this side, a lot of backfill, and then we did see it was weatherproofed on some of the walls,” Holderfield said.

Advertisement

This all started because Holderfield wanted to fix the growing number of large cracks popping up across her garage floor. 

“We were starting the cosmetic fix, and our contractor was here. And with a sledgehammer, he wanted to see what he was working with, so he simply pounded down the sledgehammer,” Holderfield said.

The large void directly underneath the garage is not accessible from their finished basement. Only one wall appears to be weatherproofed, so the family believes moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of the entire two-car garage.

“A couple different companies did stop by, and they were in awe of what they found. Even the North Huntingdon inspector came out, took a look, and it was not something he was familiar with seeing,” said Holderfield.

That inspector encouraged the family to hire a structural engineer. They did, and received a report that concluded the issue was the result of “poor workmanship and faulty construction,” Holderfield said.

Advertisement

The family’s homeowner’s insurance denied the claim, saying defects from faulty construction are excluded from coverage.

“Knowing that we were parking our cars in here up until we found this problem — we have children and animals, and knowing that a catastrophe could come, I think that’s our biggest concern,” Holderfield said.

That’s why the family called the builder, Ryan Homes, and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floorplans.

“They really just took a look and took pictures. When we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Homes, he said this was 30 years ago, there were different laws back then,” Holderfield said.

KDKA Investigates reached out to Ryan Homes for comment to ask if building these dead spaces is still its practice. And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan Homes inspect further?

Advertisement

Ryan Homes said they do not comment on news stories.

In an update on Thursday, the Holderfields told KDKA Ryan Homes reached out and said it’s willing to work with them on this, share the cost of the fix, and manage the project to ensure it is fixed as they would expect.

The family feels that’s a valid attempt to make it right.   

KDKA Investigates talked to a Cranberry homeowner who also lives in a Ryan Home built around the same time. She sent photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and broke through the concrete last year. When the garage floor failed, she said it revealed a 9-foot void. She said it took four triaxle trucks of fill and $20,000 to fix.

Holderfield says that makes her wonder who else could find this.

Advertisement

“I would love people to be held accountable, but I also understand the laws and that we could potentially be out of the warranty period is what they say. I do wish we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed,” Holderfield said. 

More than anything, the Holderfield family says it wants people to know there is potential that other homes could be built like this and to be aware.



Source link

Continue Reading

Connecticut

Connecticut insurance now required to cover these athletic prosthetics

Published

on

Connecticut insurance now required to cover these athletic prosthetics


Park Ranger Ben Croll says outdoor plans for kids attending New Haven’s parks and rec summer camp at West Rock Ridge state park are changing with the wind, after thick smoke from Canada’s wildfires continues to make its way through the Connecticut skies.  



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending