Thirty-five women are suing a Beverly Hills gynecologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and other medical practices where the doctor works, alleging decades of sexual and medical misconduct that the health facilities condoned and covered up.
The lawsuit, filed late Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Dr. Barry Brock, for many years, speaking dirty and unsettling words to patients; they grope their breasts and private parts during unnecessary medical examinations, sometimes without gloves; and engaged in “female mutilation” by giving women unnecessary bras, among other reported misconduct.
The lawsuit also alleges that the doctor has long refused to perform surgical procedures on patients who needed them.
Brock has previously denied any wrongdoing or sexual misconduct.
“I know that I have never touched or examined a patient in any way except for health reasons. “I know that my comments have never been sexually suggestive or sexually harassing, and that any such allegations have removed the comments in a completely different and misleading way,” Brock told The Times earlier this year.
“Any claim that I performed a medical test or procedure for anything other than a medical purpose or that I did it for fun, to prevent a C-section, or to sexually assault a patient is a horribly false claim,” Brock said. .
Brock did not immediately comment Tuesday on specific allegations in the lawsuit. Cedars-Sinai also did not comment on the allegations.
The doctor is also facing charges before the Medical Board of California, where he is accused of “repeated acts of negligence.” According to the official complaint, Brock failed to give a patient adequate pain medication while treating her for a miscarriage, and failed to properly remove objects from her uterus, among other allegations.
In a statement, Brock said the incidents cited in the lawsuit were not an accurate description of his treatment of the patient and that some of the allegations “are not consistent with my practices at all.”
For example, Brock said he always wore gloves during a pelvic exam and could not imagine refusing to deal with the severe pain the patient was experiencing. “Based on what I know about my care and treatment of this patient,” he said, “I will successfully defend my treatment as being within the standard of care.”
Brock, 74, said he had been a physician at Cedars-Sinai since the early 1980s, and had never faced a medical board lawsuit.
She left her network of doctors in 2018 but retained privileges at Cedars-Sinai Hospital while in private practice at Rodeo Drive Women’s Health Center and Beverly Hills OB/GYN, which are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Both organizations did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
In July, Cedars-Sinai said it suspended Brock’s hospital privileges after receiving “complaints” from his former patients. A few months later, his hospital privileges were terminated. A spokesman for Cedars-Sinai said the type of behavior Brock is accused of is against its “values.”
At the time, a Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman said privacy laws prevent the medical center from confirming the existence of any patient complaints or disciplinary actions taken against Brock before this year.
The lawsuit alleges that patients and medical staff reported concerns about Brock to Cedars-Sinai long before the complaints that led to the termination of his privileges at the hospital.
Cedars-Sinai administrators received “ample and repeated warnings” about his misconduct and past abuse of patients, as well as complaints to the state medical board and the health system itself, the lawsuit said. But the medical center and the other defendants continued to “expose unsuspecting female patients to a known sexual abuser,” the suit says.
The plaintiffs are represented by a legal team that includes Anthony T. DiPietro, an attorney who also represented patients in the sex case against former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden, and attorneys representing patients of former USC gynecologist George Tyndall.
The complaint details the allegations of 35 former patients ranging in age from 20 to 60 years. Some see Brock only once and refuse to see him again, while others are haunted by him repeatedly over a period of years. The period of their care spans from the mid-1980s to this year, according to the complaint.
About a dozen patients alleging unnecessary stitches or comments about them: Brock told several of the plaintiffs that he put “extra stitches” in their bottoms to “tighten” them after giving birth, the lawsuit says.
In one incident, according to the lawsuit, Brock said, “I’m going to sew her up clean” in front of her husband and parents after giving birth. In another, Brock told the woman that she wasn’t sorry, but told her husband, “Don’t worry, dad, I’m going to put a stitch in there,” and then continued to assault him without her consent, the lawsuit said. it is suspected.
Others suffer from ongoing pain or problems urinating after “this horrible and unnecessary form of female genital mutilation,” the lawsuit said. One patient’s doctors described the incision as “the equivalent of female circumcision,” the lawsuit says.
The case also included allegations of violent behavior and threats. One former patient alleged that Brock “violently inserted” a speculum into her genitalia, opened it and “proceeded to pump the metal out of her, simulating sex.”
The woman said she reported the experience to the Rodeo Drive Women’s Health Center officer, where Brock was working at the time, and related the encounter with Brock. No action was taken, according to the lawsuit.
At trial, two women said he forced them to hear that he was erect. Another said he “proceeded to stroke her private part with his hand” while she was alone in the exam room, the lawsuit said.
Another suspect is that during the birth, Brock went in and put his foot where he was attached, and then grabbed his foot when he tried to remove it.
The lawsuit also revealed that Brock forced patients to undergo critical tests even after they refused. The decision to perform a pelvic or breast exam should be shared between doctor and patient, the lawsuit said, and “such invasive procedures should never be performed without the knowledge, understanding, and consent of the patient.”
In one incident, the lawsuit said, Brock pulled down the pants of a woman who refused a genital exam in front of her daughter and was “so aggressive [the woman] He immediately ran out of the room crying.”
Another patient alleged that Brock ignored her when he said there was no need for a breast exam. Instead, the complaint says, he took off her bra, pressed her breasts and told her, “She has perfect breasts.” Does your husband tell you that?”
She is one of five women who say he removed their bras without permission before touching their breasts, according to the complaint.
Other patients say Brock refused to leave the room as they undressed or refused their request for hospital clothes, which require them to be screened naked. (In response to questions about the medical board’s case, Brock said he would leave the room or turn or look away while the patient changed behind a protective curtain, and that he had never asked a patient to undress in front of him.)
Many described sexual comments: One said Brock told her her private part looked “ripe” and peppered her with invasive questions, such as asking if her partner would ejaculate during sex, according to the lawsuit. Many patients commented that while examining women’s genitalia or breasts, Brock commented on how “lucky” or “happy” their partners must be, the suit says.
The lawsuit alleges that Cedars-Sinai was notified repeatedly about concerns with Brock. Another patient he saw between 2011 and 2013 reported his behavior to office staff and asked to switch to a different doctor, according to the lawsuit. Another person who saw him in 2018 and 2019 informed his general practitioner, also affiliated with Cedars-Sinai, about his behavior, the lawsuit says.
Another patient, who was a Cedars-Sinai employee at the time, filed a complaint with the medical center after a prenatal appointment in 2017 in which Brock allegedly massaged her breasts “in consideration of medical assistance” and spoke inappropriately to her as well. her husband, according to the suit.
Although he was told there would be consequences for Brock — who was in the Cedars-Sinai physician network at the time — he never heard back from the medical center, the complaint says.
The case said that another patient who tried to report misconduct at Cedars-Sinai earlier this year was told that the health center would not take action because the doctor was working independently.
She then contacted a Beverly Hills OB-GYN, who had referred her to Brock after her regular doctor was unavailable. When she didn’t get a response after sharing her information, the woman filed a formal, written complaint with Cedars-Sinai via email, according to the lawsuit. Only then, the lawsuit said, was his complaint taken seriously and Brock’s hospital privileges suspended.
A Cedars-Sinai spokeswoman told The Times in September that the hospital system terminated Brock’s clinical privileges following an investigation and reported the matter to the state health board.
However, Brock said he waived his rights without “finding the truth” or “hearing the merits” of the allegations being investigated. In August, he informed patients that he would be retiring at the end of the month due to “uncertainty about how long this program will take.”
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