Jury awards $300 million to former children’s hospital patients claiming doctor sexually abused them
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – A Virginia civil court awarded $300 million to three young women Friday after the women alleged a hospital’s former medical director abused them while they were…
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – A Virginia civil court awarded $300 million to three young women Friday after the women alleged a hospital’s former medical director abused them while they were patients, WTVR reported.
The case arose from a $930 million lawsuit which 46 former patients of Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents in New Kent County filed against the hospital and its longtime — now former — medical director, Dr. Daniel Davidow, WTVR reported.
The Richmond court ruled — after about seven hours of deliberation and on the 15th day of the trial — each of the three women would receive $60 million in compensatory damages and $40 million in punitive damages, according to the outlet.
The three former patients and their attorney, Kevin Biniazan, broke down in tears after the ruling, Biniazan told WTVR. The three plaintiffs’ case is reportedly the first civil trial.
Cumberland’s parent company, Universal Health Services (UHS), and the UHS of Delaware (UHS-D) were co-defendants in the case, the outlet reported.
The three plaintiffs accused Davidow of inappropriately touching them during femoral pulse examinations. All 46 plaintiffs reportedly accused the defendants of negligence, physical abuse and falsifying medical records and diagnoses to elongate hospital stays.
Davidow previously faced four felony counts in a separate criminal case brought against him in December 2022 by two of the 46 plaintiffs, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The two women alleged Davidow groped their breasts, inappropriately touched their pubic hair and digitally penetrated their vaginas during femoral pulse examinations. Prosecutor T. Scott Renick also alleged Davidow used the examinations as “a ruse” to abuse the then-teenagers and that he had “complete control over them.”
Davidow denied the charges and reportedly demonstrated the examinations to the court and claimed female chaperones were present in the examination room.
Judge B. Eliot Bondurant, citing inconsistencies in the plaintiffs’ testimonies, found the doctor not guilty of the criminal charges April 26 in what the judge termed a difficult case.
Davidow will reappear in court for his next civil trial March 2025, WTVR reported.