Gynecologist facing sex complaints to keep practising

Warning: The testimony quoted in this story contains explicit details.

A St. Mary’s Hospital gynecologist facing three separate, similar complaints of sexual misconduct will continue to practise as the hearing into the complaints now moves to the end of February.

Dr. Kamal Maraghi, 74, faces complaints in front of the Collège des médecins disciplinary committee for three incidents that former patients say took place in 1995, 2006, and 2008. He continues to practice one day a week at St. Mary’s, but is not to be alone with patients until the hearing concludes.

Two of the former patients who had testified earlier at the hearing reacted in disgust on Friday when the decision was made to break for nearly four months, fearing the same thing they say happened to them could happen to other women in the meanwhile.

“That’s ridiculous,” said one from the back of the conference room, holding back tears. “They’re going to forget everything,” said another, equally as upset.

Daniel Lord, president of the disciplinary committee, asked for order in the room before calling for a break.

A fourth ex-patient, who contacted the order after media reports on the hearing, was allowed to testify on Friday, but Maraghi ultimately won’t be judged on her complaint.

The woman said Friday that she was 27 years old when she saw Maraghi at Centre Médical StHenri for a contraceptive prescription renewal in 1989.

She said she was not offered a hospital gown after undressing, as was said by the other three patients throughout the hearing.

“It made me uncomfortable,” she said. “What really struck me, what I remember, is Maraghi then putting his right hand’s five fingers together and putting a lot of lubricant all over them,” she said.

He then started going back and forth with his hand inside her vagina for about one minute, she said.

“After the second time I asked myself what was going on, on the third time I knew he was assaulting me,” she said. “I started screaming, howling in my mind, but I couldn’t make a sound with my mouth. I was paralyzed.”

She said she knew it was over with when Maraghi “rubbed his entire hand the length of my vulva and against my clitoris.”

“I was trembling,” she said. “What struck me was how calm he was, as if in complete control.”

The next thing she said she remembers is starting to cry the second she stepped out of his office and running all the way home.

She made a complaint to the order the next day, she said. Her original complaint has since “involuntarily been destroyed” by the order, it was said in the hearing.

On Thursday, the disciplinary committee heard from Daniel Blouin, a gynecologist with 40 years of experience who estimated he’s done roughly 40,000 gynecological exams in his career.

He categorically denied that some of the actions patients described in their testimonies — Maraghi either rubbing thighs with his offhand, not wearing gloves, asking them to move their pelvises up and down, or doing in and out motions with his fingers — should ever take place during a gynecological exam.

Asked if he’s ever had a patient have an orgasm during an exam — as one of the patients had testified happened to her — he answered immediately: “Never.”

“You should always take complete precaution to tell patients what you’re doing, to explain every single action you’re doing,” Blouin said. “And completely minimize anything that could be potentially linked to sexual aspects.”

The hearing is set to resume on Feb. 24 with the defence’s testimonies.