‘I USED HIM TO GET A DOCTOR’S NOTE’
Reluctant witness at physician’s sexual abuse hearing says she ‘used him’ to get a doctor’s note
Woman forced to testify against doctor accused of sexual abuse says the sex was consensual and she wanted no part of the hearing against him.
Warning: This article contains graphic details.
With his penis exposed while sitting next to her in the front seat of the car, the woman testified, Dr. Suganthan Kayilasanathan asked her: “You sure?”
She was sure, she testified Wednesday, saying she had already rebuffed his advances earlier that day at his condo. She proceeded to get out of the car and into her house, the last time she would see the Toronto doctor, she said.
The witness, identified only as Patient A due to a publication ban, was on the stand at Kayilasanathan’s discipline proceedings at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.
She also testified that she and Kayilasanathan had sex once at a hotel two months before the incident in the car, around the same time she said he had written her two doctor’s notes on two separate days to avoid having to take exams.
Her testimony forms the basis of the college’s allegations against Kayilasanathan. The college claims he sexually abused a patient and committed disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional conduct — allegations that the doctor denies.
Tensions ran high in the hearing room on Wednesday. For one thing, the patient whose testimony was highly anticipated did not even want to be there. She had tried unsuccessfully last year to quash what is known as a summons, which compelled her to testify.
Had she refused, the college was prepared to enforce the summons and have the woman arrested and brought to the college.
Lawyers for the college and for Kayilasanathan frequently jockeyed to register objections in front of the five-member discipline panel, as the witness was repeatedly asked to leave the room so the lawyers could make their arguments.
“I essentially used him to get a (doctor’s) note,” the woman said under cross-examination by Kayilasanathan’s lawyer, Andrew Parley.
(The doctor himself was not present Wednesday, his lawyer explaining it was a “full day” at the clinic.)
The woman and Kayilasanathan met through mutual friends around 2003, and became reacquainted in 2010, she said. The woman recounted a night of partying with Kayilasanathan and a mutual friend, and an after-party at the condo of Kayilasanathan’s brother, who was not home.
“We just started listening to music. I was drinking, all three of us were smoking weed,” she said. The friend and Kayilasanathan were also doing cocaine, but she was not, she said.
“We were high. Hours go by. Next thing you know, it’s morning.” The problem was the woman had an exam that Monday, for which she was not prepared due to the night out, she testified.
“We strategized about getting a doctor’s note,” she said under questioning by college lawyer Carolyn Silver. “He did mention he could get me a doctor’s note. I said ‘Sure, that would be great.’ ”
And so she went to the Scarborough clinic where he worked on the Monday to get the note, she said. Although her medical chart from that day indicates a number of issues such as fever and chills, the patient admitted on the stand that none of that was actually discussed at the clinic. She was there strictly to get a note to get out of her exam, she testified. But she did have him examine her briefly with a stethoscope.
“Because I said something like, ‘Shouldn’t we make this look like a real doctor’s visit?’ ” she testified.
They texted off and on that week, she said, mentioning she had sensed for weeks that the doctor was being a bit flirtatious with her. “I thought, ‘Hey, he’s a doctor, let me take a shot at him,’ ” she said.
They hooked up at a Mississauga hotel days later, she said. He was in no position to drive because he had been drinking, so she left in a cab. Kayilasanathan gave her some money for the fare, though it wasn’t enough to cover the entire ride.
A few days later, she said, she was back at the clinic, very briefly, to get a second doctor’s note to defer another exam, which the doctor gave her.
“I just thought it would be more believable at the college that it was the same doctor” writing a second note, she testified.
The last time she saw him was when she visited his condo in 2011. He tried to make a move on her that she rejected. He eventually drove her home, exposing himself when they reached their destination, she said.
The woman did go back to his clinic a month later, but to see another doctor, to whom she disclosed she had had sex with Kayilasanathan.
Health-care professionals are required by law in Ontario to report to their respective regulator if they know of other health-care professionals and patients having sex. The patient did not consent for the doctor she saw in March to give her name to the college, but the regulator ordered the doctor to turn it over.
The patient testified she never wanted to make a complaint about Kayilasanathan, has no ill will against him, and never wanted to be part of the discipline proceedings.
“As far as I’m concerned, my confidentiality, my privacy was breached,” she said. “And I’m in this position now.”
If found guilty of sexual abuse, Kayilasanathan will lose his licence.
His defence team will begin presenting their case to the discipline panel Friday.