U.S.

Johns Hopkins Will Pay $190M Over Gynecologist's Recordings

Johns Hopkins Hospital has reached a settlement of $190 million for up to 12,500 patients who were secretly recorded by a gynecologist.

Johns Hopkins Will Pay $190M Over Gynecologist's Recordings
Suraj Peri / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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Johns Hopkins Hospital has agreed to pay $190 million to settle claims that a gynecologist recorded patients during exams.

In February 2013, Dr. Nikita Levy was found in possession of more than 1,200 video clips and images of his patients in various states of undress. (Via The Baltimore Sun)

Johns Hopkins hospital said in a statement that suspicion was first placed on Levy when another employee noticed a camera disguised as a pen worn around Levy's neck. (Via Suraj Peri / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Levy was fired by Hopkins on Feb. 8, 2013 and would take his own life 10 days later. (Via Johns Hopkins Medicine)

Levy's patients, such as Tyesha Bell, who saw him for six years, were shocked to hear a man they trusted could do such a thing. (Via WMAR)

"I yelled in the break room at lunch. I said no, that's my doctor." (Via WMAR)

The Washington Post quotes a former employee as saying: "Never in a thousand years would I have imagined such a thing. He was incredibly compassionate. He was always there to take care of his patients. They expected him to be on call 24/7, and he was."

One of the attorneys in the class action law suit said many of the women who saw Levy have stopped seeking medical care for themselves and their children all together. (Via WMAR)

"These women were and are extraordinarily upset ... over a breach of faith, a breach of trust, a betrayal on part of the medical system." (Via WMAR)

This $190 million settlement could be the largest of its kind but it's not the first.

$123 million was awarded to victims of a Delaware pediatrician who was convicted of recording sexual assaults on hundreds of patients. (Via The News Journal)

And $50 million was awarded to 150 patients of a Connecticut doctor who used a medical study as an excuse to take obscene photos of children. (Via The Hartford Courant)

But what stands out about the Levy case is the sheer number of victims, with potentially more than 12,500 people recorded.