legrandangle-lgm

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse

A disciplinary committee has revoked the license of a Hamilton GP after finding he sexually assaulted two patients and repeatedly ignored an order not to be alone with patients without a monitor present.

According to a decision of the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline TribunalDr. Koma Diryawish Israel was involved in the sexual abuse of two patients between 2017 and 2021, as well as “several related forms of professional misconduct.”

The tribunal said that on several occasions Israel made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature and grabbed, kissed and rubbed the genitals of Patient A, who was also an employee. The tribunal noted that he tried to pull down her trousers on more than one occasion, and during one incident he pulled down his own trousers and told her he wanted to show her how ‘big they are’.

Patient A recorded audio during some of the incidents, the tribunal said, and eventually resigned in January 2020 and ended the doctor-patient relationship.

He was arrested and charged with assault and on October 18, 2022, he pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of common assault. He received a suspended sentence of two years probation.

“Dr. Israel’s behavior involved persistence and repetition over a long period of time in his pursuit of Patient A for apparent sexual gratification. He ignored her protests and took advantage of her doubly disadvantaged status, as a woman dependent on her work for her livelihood, and as a patient in a trust relationship that the registrant had betrayed,” the panel wrote.

“Even after Patient A had enough and both relationships with Dr. Israel, and even after he was arrested and faced the criminal justice system, he abused Patient B.”

The tribunal wrote that Israel saw Patient B three times in 2021 and that in September of that year he “made inappropriate touches and comments of a sexual nature to her.”

According to the panel, Patient B visited the doctor and told him that she was experiencing chest pain, indicating the problem area.

The tribunal said he asked the patient to stand and lift her shirt, and she complied.

“Without explanation or permission, Dr. Israel patient B’s bra, exposing her breasts. He sexually touched Patient B by squeezing Patient B’s breast with his hand. He did not examine the part of her body that she pointed out to him,” the panel wrote.

The patient, the tribunal said, was “in shock and pain” as a result of the incident.

“Later that same day, Patient B saw Dr. Israel smoked outside in the parking lot as she left. Dr. Israel engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior toward Patient B by making comments of a sexual nature.”

The patient immediately reported the incident to a friend, who contacted police, the tribunal said.

The panel said Israel was not allowed to see patients without a monitor present during the investigation of the complaints, a directive it ignored 110 times between August 2022 and April 2024.

The panel said Israel first appeared before the disciplinary committee in 2019, when he was previously suspended for a month after making “sexually charged, unacceptable comments” to a female patient. The doctor, the panel said, made comments about the patient “needing a man” and also questioned whether the woman “achieved sexual satisfaction through masturbation.”

The committee called his behavior “degrading” and said it showed “a lack of sensitivity to (the) patient comfort.”

He was assigned to participate in the PROBE Ethics and Boundaries program.

“That decision was announced on June 28, 2019, just after the first specific incident on June 7, 2019 involving Patient A in our case,” the panel wrote.

“In imposing the joint sentence as requested, the committee expressed the rationale that it ‘will serve to protect Dr. to rehabilitate Israel and provide public protection.” Instead, this was the start of the series of sexual abuse in the second half of 2019 that left Patient A violated, begging him to stop and pushing him away to free himself.

They noted that the only “mitigating” factor in the case is that Israel did not dispute the panel’s allegations.

“In both cases, Dr. Israel violated the trust that every patient has the right to trust that their doctor will act in their best interests and not abuse the doctor’s position of authority, especially in matters of private, sensitive and vulnerable nature. as physical and verbal conduct of a sexual nature,” the panel wrote in the decision.