Migrant women won’t be sent to doctor accused of misconduct
Immigration authorities have stopped sending detained women to a rural Georgia gynecologist accused of performing surgeries without consent, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
Dr. Mahendra Amin faces allegations that he administered hysterectomies and other procedures that women held at the Irwin County Detention Center didn’t seek or fully understand. Amin has seen at least 60 detained women, Andrew Free, a lawyer working with other attorneys to investigate medical care in Irwin County, said Tuesday.
Bryan Cox, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, confirmed that Amin no longer would see patients from the detention center, but he declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general.
The Irwin County Hospital issued a statement defending Amin, saying he “is a longtime member of the Irwin County Hospital medical staff and has been in good standing for the entirety of his service to the Irwin County community.”
According to the statement, Amin operated on two detained women who were referred to the hospital for hysterectomies. Heath Clark, the hospital’s general counsel, did not respond to questions about whether Amin performed hysterectomies in cases where the women had a different initial referral. Clark also did not say how many other procedures Amin had performed that could jeopardize a woman’s ability to have children, including the removal of fallopian tubes or ovaries.
Scott Grubman, a lawyer for Amin, did not respond to a request for comment.
The allegations against the doctor were first revealed in a complaint filed last week by a nurse at Irwin County Detention Center. The nurse, Dawn Wooten, alleged that many detained women were taken to an unnamed gynecologist whom she labeled the “uterus collector” because of how many hysterectomies he performed.
The Associated Press on Friday reported that at least eight women since 2017 had been taken to see Amin for gynecological treatment, though it did not find evidence of mass hysterectomies as alleged in the complaint. Free said Tuesday that a team of lawyers had heard from dozens of more women raising concerns about the doctor.