A female former patient of The Cleveland Clinic is claiming that she was drugged and raped years ago by one of the hospital’s surgeons and the clinic tried to cover it up.
An investigation carried out by USA Today found that Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic kept a surgeon accused of raping patients on staff, while reaching a confidential settlement, which allowed him to move to another hospital without any warnings.
The investigation revealed the horrifying experience of two females in the clinic. One patient had come in for a rectal exam and, in the process, she says the doctor pulled his penis out and penetrated her from behind. Police found semen all over exam room following complaints from patients, but the surgeon claimed it was as a result of masturbating.
Ryan Williams, the accused colorectal surgeon was released last summer from the hospital after he was accused in police reports by two separate women of anally raping them in 2008 and 2009.
The first patient, Lachelle Duncan was receiving a rectal exam from Williams, the report said, when she jumped up and exclaimed the doctor had inserted his penis in her rectum and that she saw him holding it in his hand.
She ran out of the room without pants and shouted, “Why did he do it? Why did you do this?” Williams replied, “I don’t know,” with his head in his hands, according to an interview with medical assistant Patricia Bacha contained in the police report.
Williams explained to police the presence of semen in one of his examination rooms was the result of masturbation to relieve stress, the police report said.
Lachelle Duncan, sued Williams and the renowned Cleveland Clinic after she alleged that Williams anally raped her during a rectal exam in 2008. A rape kit was found to be inconclusive but the hospital eventually settled for an undisclosed amount to the victim, according to USA Today.
The second case allegedly involved the doctor drugging his victim. It wasn’t until many years later she would recover the memory of the rape.
Kristin Fehr went to see Williams to have a hemorrhoid removed 10 months after the first complainant, Duncan did. On Feb. 6, 2009, Williams brought her into the examination room alone, she told police, gave her two white pills and a cup of water and said she needed to take the pills immediately.
Fehr recalled groggily getting on the table and just as hazily leaving the medical center with her then-boyfriend, who was waiting in the car.
She remembered being pushed from behind, turning and seeing Williams holding his penis. “Everything I was remembering was disturbing,” Fehr said.
Hopper, also a Harvard Medical School teaching associate, says that’s not unusual as “we retrieve information from memories based on the context we’re in.”
The Cleveland Clinic failed to respond to Fehr’s compliant initially. Instead, they began a PR campaign showing promotional videos and positive articles about Williams online, which Fehr saw. After pressure from Fehr and coming forward in the press, Williams was suddenly “let go” for reason unrelated to his assault claims. Williams was never charged with a crime.
The surgeon now works at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where officials said Friday, they did not know about the “disturbing allegations” when Williams was hired over the summer.
