More Than 200 Women And Men Accuse Boston Doctor Of Sexual Abuse, Unnecessary Exams

BOSTON (AP) — 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.

“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.”

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.

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