The infamous Johns Hopkins Medicine scandal, which saw more than 8,000 women have their gynaecology exams secretly videotaped, is finally reaching some closure.
According to the Baltimore Associated Press, the distinguished hospital and research facility is expected to pay out $190 million in damages to the victims.
Dr. Nikita Levy was fired from the Johns Hopkins Health System in 2013 after he been working there since 1988. It was discovered he was using a pen camera probe to record his patients’ sex organs although no evidence was ever proved that he shared it with others or uploaded onto the Internet. Before charges could be brought against him, he was found dead in his Baltimore home in an apparent suicide.
“All of these women were brutalized by this,” Jonathan Schochor, the women’s lead attorney, tells the press. “Some of these women needed counseling, they were sleepless, they were dysfunctional in the workplace, they were dysfunctional at home, they were dysfunctional with their mates. This breach of trust, this betrayal — this is how they felt.”
Some of the women even reported that their was inappropriate contact between them and Dr. Levy and others even reported that their were frequently scheduled to his office for exams that were deemed unnecessary.
The U.S. News & World Report ranked Johns Hopkins as the best overall hospital in America for 21 consecutive years between 1991–2011, but they unsurprisingly saw their rating slip from first to third place in 2013.
And although the $190 million settlement seems like a massive financial blow, even for a prestigious hospital, a statement from the organization said their insurance will cover it while adding, “one individual does not define Johns Hopkins.”
Additional pictures of the scandal can be found in the numbered gallery below.
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Photos: WBAL TV, CBS Baltimore
