Photos by Ryon Horne / AJC
An AJC National Investigation
Hurt that doesn’t heal
In their own words: Six women. Six stories of pain
It’s the last thing patients expect to happen.
Doctors are supposed to touch during an exam, but not fondle. Psychiatrists should listen to a patient’s darkest secrets, but never parlay the intimacy into a kiss. Anesthesiologists put patients under for surgery, but shouldn’t have their way with them.
When physicians barge through the sacred boundaries of the doctor-patient relationship, the damage to patients can last for years – if not forever. Continue reading
Prestige protects the worst abusers
One doctor assaulted at least 1,200 children. How he avoided punishment for 15 years illustrates how the medical profession looks out for its own.
Caught in the act, Dr. Earl Bradley needed to think fast. “What the hell are you doing, you bastard?” his patient’s mother had screamed when she found Bradley with his hand in her daughter’s diaper. Trailing her to the parking lot, Bradley was insisting she hadn’t seen what she thought she saw. The police were coming. Without a plausible story, Bradley could be in serious trouble. Continue reading
Hurt that doesn’t heal: More from Part 5 | Dec. 9, 2016
Read the entire series
Part 1: License to betray | Part 2: Illness or crime? |
Part 3: State secrets | Part 4: Failing grades |
Part 5: Hurt that doesn’t heal | Part 6: Still forgiven
Still forgiven
The #MeToo movement and public outcry over Dr. Larry Nassar’s sex abuse have not reformed the system that disciplines doctors.