Doctor’s victims lament clinic’s response
More should have been done to offer information and support, two say
The young woman received two emails from the University of Ottawa Health Services clinic last winter and spring, saying her doctor was absent due to “unforeseen circumstances,” and then advising that he would not be returning. “I was angry,” the woman said. What the messages failed to mention was that Dr. Vincent Nadon had been banned from practising at Health Services clinics after being charged with sexual assault and voyeurism.
The woman was painfully aware of that because she was one of his victims. She had read a media report about the charges against Nadon and came forward to tell police how he had groped her during a doctor’s visit.
“For me, (the clinic’s email) was like a fake email. I was like, ‘Thanks, so you are not telling me what is going on,’” said the woman, whose name is shielded by a court publication ban. “For the persons involved in the process, you feel like you are invisible.”
The woman is one of two patients who told the Citizen they wish the University of Ottawa Health Services and the school itself had done more to help Nadon’s victims by providing prompt information about the charges against him and offering counselling and support.
“It’s not their job to investigate, I know,” the woman said. “But in terms of supporting me through the process, they were absent.”
The other woman, former student Ellina Rabbat, is the lead claimant in a proposed classaction lawsuit against Nadon and the university.
The lawsuit alleges the university is “vicariously liable” for Nadon’s actions and the injuries and damages suffered by his victims. Rabbat’s lawyer says she plans to add the University of Ottawa Health Services as a defendant in the lawsuit. The allegations in the civil suit have not been proven in court, and the University of Ottawa has not yet filed a defence.
Nadon was first charged in January after a patient noticed he was recording her with an iPhone hidden in a cupboard during a Pap test examination. Police said they feared there were more victims. As other patients came forward, the charges against Nadon piled up.
Both women interviewed by the Citizen said it wasn’t until early May that Health Services sent them an email explaining that Nadon had been charged and providing a phone number to contact police.
At that point, the doctor stood accused of sexual assault and voyeurism in connection with 51 patients over a span of 28 years.
The May 4 email from Health Services emphasized that Nadon was “no longer connected in any way to our organization.”
“There is no higher priority than the safety, confidence and privacy of our patients,” the email read.
Health Services sent 2,235 emails or letters to Nadon’s former patients in May, as well as 51,500 emails to others who weren’t his direct patients but may have seen him in various contexts, according to executive director Christopher Fisher.
Nadon is in prison now, serving eight years after pleading guilty earlier this month to voyeurism and sexual assault involving 49 women.
The Citizen asked Fisher for an interview on the topic of what lessons his agency had learned and what, if anything, it might do differently. Fisher referred to a statement on the Health Services website, while saying he had “nothing further to add, so I respectfully decline your invitation to an interview.” The statement says Nadon’s guilty plea and sentence were “important steps in the process of healing for all those involved.
“The University of Ottawa Health Services is thankful to the brave victims who stepped forward to tell their stories and to the Ottawa Police Service for their diligent investigation. We are also proud of our staff and providers who have dedicated themselves to our patients’ well-being throughout this very difficult time.
“As always, UOHS will continue to maintain as our greatest priority the delivery of high quality health care to all of our patients in a safe and welcoming environment.”
The University of Ottawa says it does not control the University of Ottawa Health Services, which has a contract with the school but is independently owned and managed.
The two women who spoke to the Citizen said they believed both organizations could have done more to help the victims.
Rabbat said she was puzzled when she received the first email from Health Services in January, the day after Nadon was charged.
“In the wake of very serious charges filed against one of our family physicians,” the email said, “we are taking all measures to fulfill our professional and legal obligations while ensuring that our patients, staff and providers are supported at this difficult time and that the public is appropriately informed.”
“I thought, ‘This is weird, I hope it isn’t my doctor.’”
When Rabbat Googled Nadon’s name and discovered he had been charged, she said, she was horrified.
“My stomach just dropped. I felt sick. You’re in shock.”
She thought back to her visit with Nadon for her first Pap test.
Nadon remained in the examination room while she undressed and put her clothes back on after the exam, she said. He did not offer her a gown, or draping over her legs during the exam, which was conducted while she was naked from the waist down, wearing only a bra, she said. Nadon made an inappropriate joke about the speculum that was inserted into her vagina during the exam, she said.
Rabbat said she felt embarrassed and uncomfortable during the exam, but reassured herself that this must be normal procedure for a Pap test. “I trusted him fully.”
After reading about the charges against Nadon, she called the police to report that she believed she was a victim. The police called her in to provide a statement.
The police officer told her they would let her know if they found any images of her on video, but some of the evidence had been destroyed, Rabbat said. Shortly before they arrested him, police observed Nadon dumping a garbage bag into a trash bin at a Chelsea, Que. grocery store that contained a damaged computer hard drive. No data was recovered from it.
Videos police found on a computer during a search of Nadon’s home in Chelsea provided evidence for multiple charges of voyeurism and sexual assault. Nadon groped the breasts of patients and inserted his finger into their vaginas without using gloves, according to the agreed statement of facts in court.
Rabbat said she never heard back from police after she gave a statement. Her complaint was not included among those that formed the basis for the criminal case.
Health Services should have provided her with information about the charges against Nadon immediately, she said. The first four emails she received from Health Services failed to even “have the courtesy of providing me the phone number of the police.”
After the initial email on Jan. 20 about serious charges against an unspecified doctor, she received an email on Jan. 22 notifying her that Dr. Nadon was out of the office for an indeterminate amount of time for “unforeseen circumstances”; another on April 3 saying he would not be returning and another doctor was filling in; and one on April 30 saying a new doctor would assume care of his patients.
“Are you trying to minimize the situation or just cover yourself, not trying to help me tell my story and come forward?” Rabbat said. “I felt like they didn’t want me to speak out.”
Rabbat also suggested Health Services should have offered counselling to Nadon’s patients.
“The Health Services does have psychologists and psychiatrists. I definitely think that should have been offered, or mentioned at least. Isn’t trauma important enough to deal with or to address? I’m confused about what their role would be in terms of my health care. What is their responsibility? As a patient you expect to be taken care of by the doctor, and when that doesn’t happen, what do you do?”
Rabbat also said the University of Ottawa should have done more. She assumed that Health Services was part of the university and didn’t realize it is independently operated. Health Services carries the university name and logo, uses the university email address, is listed on the university website, has offices on campus and serves students.
“It’s irresponsible to give them all those things, then tell them they can do what they want, and none of it is your responsibility.
“You can’t just blindly give out the right to your logo and to your students and then tell them they can do what they want and you aren’t monitoring them and that you are not going to intervene and get involved.”
The university, in a statement, said that Health Services was an “independent service provider contracted to deliver health services to uOttawa students and employees. It also provides health services to people in the community.”
Immediately after the first charges were laid against Nadon in January, the university contacted Health Services to make sure he was suspended from practising at all Health Services clinics, said the statement.
“The safety and security of our students, faculty and support staff is of the utmost importance to the University of Ottawa.”
Rabbat said she had been in “fight mode” for most of this year. “Obviously, I’m super traumatized. I feel extremely violated and so sick to my stomach. It’s really, really, disgusting.
“But I’m more focused now on just getting justice. Once I have that, I can focus on how to get over it in a healthy way.”
Her experience with Nadon left her less likely to trust people, especially doctors, she said. “It’s even hard for me now to find a therapist I can trust. I don’t know if I can trust people that I don’t know.”
The other woman said she found out about the charges against Nadon from a friend who read a news story. That prompted the woman to contact police about her own experience with Nadon.
She had gone to him for treatment of an ailment. During the visit, he suddenly groped her breast.
“It just happened, he touched me. I remember my first reaction was not in my mind, it was in my body. I just contracted everything. It went very fast … I remember his face, he was talking and talking, then during (the groping) it was silence, then he was talking again.
“I was a little bit dizzy, like, ‘What just happened?’ I wanted to ask him, ‘What just happened?’ Then he was talking, talking, telling me he will give me a prescription, he takes one or two minutes. Then I said, ‘OK, I will not confront him now.’ I left, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s just disgusting, what happened?’”
She took a shower, and phoned a friend. The woman said she phoned Health Services the next day but gave up after being put on hold. She searched the university website but didn’t immediately see what service to contact.
She just wanted to speak to someone, perhaps warn them, without going to police, she explained.
“I was afraid of being involved in the whole formal process where I would have to say, to explain, where I would be confronted to him directly …
“So I kind of let it go. And I feel guilty about this because I guess I could have done more.”
She also questioned herself about the groping.
“I felt, oh, maybe it’s me, provoking something? Maybe there is something in me that provokes that sort of behaviour?
“In my culture I have this image of oh, for women, sometimes this happens and it’s not such a big deal. But because I went to the police and they took it seriously, I know it’s a big deal and I shouldn’t be ashamed.”
Once she heard about the charges against Nadon, the woman decided to call police.
“If you know there are other victims, you feel maybe, OK, I can say what has happened to me. But if you have to go through it alone, in the police station, it can be very intimidating.”
She had high praise for the way police handled her complaint.
“When I came to the police station, they really took it seriously. I didn’t feel I had to justify. They were very supportive.”
Her complaint was the basis for one of the sexual assault charges to which Nadon pleaded guilty.
Her suggestion? Health Services could have put someone in charge of contacting Nadon’s patients. Personally.
“You can call that person and talk, and figure out what to do, maybe you go to the police or not, but it’s available … You can talk and it’s anonymous and doesn’t trigger a whole process.”
You can’t just blindly give out the right to your logo and to your students and then tell them they can do what they want and … you are not going to intervene and get involved.