Article published of the first hand account of the victim of Newman's sexual assault

[Zebra Hunter]

It is long, but a very good read. It makes me feel terrible for ever giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

One Night at Mount Sinai

Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen?

www.thecut.com

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[WilcoWorld]

It is long, but a very good read. It makes me feel terrible for ever giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

One Night at Mount Sinai

Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen?

www.thecut.com

Yeah, I think I posted here about how unbelievable the story was when it first broke. It is enlightening to look back at my reaction and to see how quick I was to discount the accusation.

Did EM RAP ever make a statement on this? Should they? He had a pretty big presence there until this happened & it looks like they still have his segments up.

 

[betamale]

I had a similar case of "cervical radiculopathy" that turned out to be a STEMI on a young patient. Glad to know I'm not the only one doing EKGs on these presentations

 

[DrGasPasser]

Part of the power that criminals use is the notion among their victims and the rest of society that their crimes are “impossible.” It happens on all levels. Nobody thought it possible that someone would turn airplanes into cruise missiles to deliver a pinprick to the heart of our society, just like nobody thought that one of our own could commit such a heinous crime.

While I’m not saying that we should immediately believe all accusations, we should never immediately dismiss them as impossible.

 

[deleted497653]

It is long, but a very good read. It makes me feel terrible for ever giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

One Night at Mount Sinai

Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen?

www.thecut.com

What a read!
It’s surprising that he thought he could get away with it.

 

[GeneralVeers]

Bizarro, I'm still not sure how he got propofol.

 

[DrGasPasser]

Bizarro, I'm still not sure how he got propofol.

My understanding is that he was saving small volumes after procedures.

 

[Birdstrike]

This guy is a con man, and had many people fooled. It looks like it’s his goal to do it again.

“Newman expressed his desire to ...see patients again ...I was an awfully good doctor”

One Night at Mount Sinai

Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen?

www.thecut.com

 

[Birdstrike]

Bizarro, I'm still not sure how he got propofol.

He said in the article he stole a left
over bottle from another patient’s room.

 

[GeneralVeers]

He said in the article he stole a left
over bottle from another patient’s room.

But how were his patient satisfaction scores and metrics?

 

[Birdstrike]

But how were his patient satisfaction scores and metrics?

The guy was enough of a conman, master of persuasion, that pre-assault they may have actually been good, although I don’t have the energy to check them in the wayback machine from before he was a known sexual predator.

 

[miacomet]

Bizarro, I'm still not sure how he got propofol.

In many dysfunction NY hospitals docs have to push their own propfol for "safety" reasons. Yup.

I really worry that he's a skilled enough con artist to re enter medicine.

 

[anonperson]

It is long, but a very good read. It makes me feel terrible for ever giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

One Night at Mount Sinai

Aja Newman went to the emergency room for shoulder pain. Her doctor was a superstar. What’s the worst that could happen?

www.thecut.com

The guy is a predator.

Should be locked up for life. He's only going to escalate his behavior.

He's constantly pushing the limits.

 

[GeneralVeers]

In many dysfunction NY hospitals docs have to push their own propfol for "safety" reasons. Yup.

I really worry that he's a skilled enough con artist to re enter medicine.

Same at my hospitals. Usually the nurses just do it and say that it was me. Occasionally I get a stickler, or a new nurse who demands I do it. One of the dumbest things set down by hospital admin.

 

[miacomet]

It's insane that someone was able to get away with this in the middle of a busy ER that has few private rooms- it shows what a dedicated, slick predator he really is.

What was most revealing and concerning to me, though, is the obvious dysfunction and corruption at Mount Sinai. The short tenure of the highly respected Dr Erik Barton and chronic understaffing of both doctors and nurses both speak to this. The adulation of a physician with so many obvious red flags (shoplifting?!, yelling, demeaning behaviors) shows what a highly dysfunctional and malignant work environmen this department, and perhaps the entire institution, has fostered. This didn't happen in a vacuum. No wonder none of their residents stay on as attendings.

 

[DrGasPasser]

It's insane that someone was able to get away with this in the middle of a busy ER that has few private rooms- it shows what a dedicated, slick predator he really is.

What was most revealing and concerning to me, though, is the obvious dysfunction and corruption at Mount Sinai. The short tenure of the highly respected Dr Erik Barton and chronic understaffing of both doctors and nurses both speak to this. The adulation of a physician with so many obvious red flags (shoplifting?!, yelling, demeaning behaviors) shows what a highly dysfunctional and malignant work environmen this department, and perhaps the entire institution, has fostered. This didn't happen in a vacuum. No wonder none of their residents stay on as attendings.

I honestly don’t think he was all that slick. It went unnoticed for a while because everyone around him was caught up in his cult of personality. That, and his work environment was so dysfunctional that he was able to more easily hide among the tall grass of safety violations.

 

[deleted436726]

I guess this is what goes on at "elite" institutions these days.

 

[miacomet]

I honestly don’t think he was all that slick. It went unnoticed for a while because everyone around him was caught up in his cult of personality. That, and his work environment was so dysfunctional that he was able to more easily hide among the tall grass of safety violations.

His cult of personality was what made him slick; many predators cultivate such a persona to hid their misdeeds. Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby all nurtured certain personas to hide their predations in plain sight. Breast exams in the ER? And people didn't think this was weird?

 

[cyanide12345678]

2 year jail time sounds kind of on the low end for sexually abuse, abuse of power, and risking the life of someone. Ill assume he didn't have backup equipment in the room while giving propofol. The combo of morphine with propofol could easily cause a few minutes of respiratory depression and hypoxia.

 

[cyanide12345678]

Also what the hell does the article mean by emergency medicine is a field where you don't frequently see superstars -_-

 

[Groove]

Ugh, I just wish this would go away. Talk about the worst PR for our specialty and for medicine in general. Every time a new article comes out, I just cringe hoping I don't see it show up on one of the major news networks.

 

[Birdstrike]

In many dysfunction NY hospitals docs have to push their own propfol for "safety" reasons. Yup.

I really worry that he's a skilled enough con artist to re enter medicine.

It's amazing how many physician sex offenders are allowed to get their licenses back and practice again. The number is far from zero. You can't be a real estate appraiser in Georgia if you are a sex offender. But you can be a doctor.

Unfortunate and way too long list of examples: "License to betray: A broken system forgives doctors in every state"

 

[miacomet]

2 year jail time sounds kind of on the low end for sexually abuse, abuse of power, and risking the life of someone. Ill assume he didn't have backup equipment in the room while giving propofol. The combo of morphine with propofol could easily cause a few minutes of respiratory depression and hypoxia.

That's a great point. The presumably rampant and repeated sexual abuse alone justifies a harsher sentence, but the use of propofol is not only dangerous but probably some combination of assault, diversion of controlled substances, and "treatment" without consent.

This article may do more than the actual court case to keep this predator off the streets and out of medicine. Kudos to the author.

 

[AdmiralChz]

This story is crazy, I hadn’t heard it before I read it. I am actually mildly surprised he was caught at all. Mount Sinai sounds like a real dump. Thanks for sharing.

I had a similar case of "cervical radiculopathy" that turned out to be a STEMI on a young patient. Glad to know I'm not the only one doing EKGs on these presentations

So, that’s what you took away from the article? Hopefully sarcasm but who knows online...

 

[Birdstrike]

Every time a new article comes out, I just cringe hoping I don't see it show up on one of the major news networks.

I'm surprised it hasn't, since he made such a point to seek out attention. But give it time. It's perfect fodder for our media in the current climate. It took a few years for the Dr. Duntsch disaster to make a media splash and that's still building with horror-show podcasts dedicated to him and everything. The powers-that-be in EM sure worked hard as hell to pretend Newman never existed, didn't they?

 

[DokterMom]

I remember well how the thread played out when this guy was first accused. I can understand how nobody wanted to believe these allegations, but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and even people who seem perfectly nice in public can have a hidden dark side. Could there possibly be a better example than Bill Cosby?

There was a wonderful article in Atlantic a few months ago that talked about how a pervasive culture of disbelief -- not believing women and men who allege they've been sexually assaulted -- led investigators to short-circuit their investigations or even decline to investigate at all if they thought they were unlikely to be able to secure a conviction. The article shows convincingly how many serial predators were allowed to continue their patterns of assault for years because they were never really investigated.

Epidemic of Disbelief

Consider the realities of how most sexual assaults happen -- specifically, without any witnesses and where even incontrovertible evidence of violent sexual contact can be explained away. There's just got to be some middle ground between "she said" and "innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

I'd like to see a "sexual assault complaint registry" established where hard-to-prove accusations were tracked and stored -- something private within the law enforcement community so as not to ruin the accused person's life, but also kept handy and actionable in case that same person is accused multiple times.

 

[RuralEDDoc]

I saw him speak a few times. Very polished, had the affable yet no-nonsense shtick down very well. If you would have told me 5 years ago that he would run for Congress and win I would have believed it.
I believe in rehabilitation and foregiveness, but there are limits. He’s talking about practicing medicine again? Come on. He drugged then masturbated on a patient. Manic or not, that’s not a forgivable offense.

 

[Zebra Hunter]

I think the part of the article that gets me the most is where the creep states that his "ER breast exam study" (that only exists in his head) had "merit". Also, when trying to regain the ability to practice medicine again, stating "I was an awfully good doctor for such a long time".

 

[littlejuan]

I doubt this was an isolated incident. You have to build up to propofol a woman and sexually assault her. I am surprised more women haven’t come forward.

 

[Zebra Hunter]

I had a similar case of "cervical radiculopathy" that turned out to be a STEMI on a young patient. Glad to know I'm not the only one doing EKGs on these presentations

Speaking of the case, why the heck did she even get handed off? Trying to hand off a musculoskeletal complaint in a young healthy patient gets an automatic “lol no” from me no matter the practice setting. Is this a normal thing people hand off in New York?

 

[deleted497653]

I think the part of the article that gets me the most is where the creep states that his "ER breast exam study" (that only exists in his head) had "merit". Also, when trying to regain the ability to practice medicine again, stating "I was an awfully good doctor for such a long time".

Sometimes people start believing their own bs!

 

[RuralEDDoc]

Speaking of the case, why the heck did she even get handed off? Trying to hand off a musculoskeletal complaint in a young healthy patient gets an automatic “lol no” from me no matter the practice setting. Is this a normal thing people hand off in New York?

+1
Speaks to a highly dysfunctional system. If you’re signing out low acuity, one-hour door to dispo patients, you might be doing something wrong.

 

[DrGasPasser]

His cult of personality was what made him slick; many predators cultivate such a persona to hid their misdeeds. Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Cosby all nurtured certain personas to hide their predations in plain sight. Breast exams in the ER? And people didn't think this was weird?

I can’t say that I disagree with that. People overlook all kinds of crazy **** when it comes to “celebrities.”

 

[DrGasPasser]

+1
Speaks to a highly dysfunctional system. If you’re signing out low acuity, one-hour door to dispo patients, you might be doing something wrong.

My understanding is that the signout occurred because she was billed as having excessive somnolence to the morphine...all 4 mg. Which begs the question - why wasn’t he punched in the balls for giving IV morphine to shoulder pain?

 

[miacomet]

My understanding is that the signout occurred because she was billed as having excessive somnolence to the morphine...all 4 mg. Which begs the question - why wasn’t he punched in the balls for giving IV morphine to shoulder pain?

Maybe he received karmically appropriate ball-punching during his time in the joint....

 

[Zebra Hunter]

My understanding is that the signout occurred because she was billed as having excessive somnolence to the morphine...all 4 mg. Which begs the question - why wasn’t he punched in the balls for giving IV morphine to shoulder pain?

We were talking about the doc that handed her off to Newman, who only gave some NSAIDs. It’s a patient in any other hospital system that never would’ve been signed out. As ruraldoc says, it really does highlight a systemic problem when 30 minutes dispo patients are being signed out to oncoming teams. These patients don’t even get rooms at the hospitals I work at, we leave them in the waiting room, the radiology tech grabs them to shoot an x-ray, they get some ibuprofen, and we discharge them.

Obviously the morphine given by Newman was used to either be a confounder to his propofol administration, or to heighten the effects of the sedative, but it clearly shows significant forethought, which makes it much more troubling.

 

[gro2001]

Also what the hell does the article mean by emergency medicine is a field where you don't frequently see superstars -_-

That made me do a double take too. But on reflection I think the author may have meant that there aren't a lot of celebrity ER docs (unlike say some plastic surgeons). Which is true.

 

[GonnaBeADoc2222]

We were talking about the doc that handed her off to Newman, who only gave some NSAIDs. It’s a patient in any other hospital system that never would’ve been signed out. As ruraldoc says, it really does highlight a systemic problem when 30 minutes dispo patients are being signed out to oncoming teams. These patients don’t even get rooms at the hospitals I work at, we leave them in the waiting room, the radiology tech grabs them to shoot an x-ray, they get some ibuprofen, and we discharge them.

Obviously the morphine given by Newman was used to either be a confounder to his propofol administration, or to heighten the effects of the sedative, but it clearly shows significant forethought, which makes it much more troubling.

It's cause the handing off doc was Andy Jagoda, who is the chair, and probably just does whatever the F he wants.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using SDN mobile

 

[WilcoWorld]

I doubt this was an isolated incident. You have to build up to propofol a woman and sexually assault her. I am surprised more women haven’t come forward.

Two other women have come forward. One of them had even filed a complaint with the hospital...but it never got seriously investigated.

Fact is that he's a creep, probably a sociopath. This could (and has) lead some to shrug it off with a "doctors are people, so of course some of them will have human faults". But to me the bigger story here* is that our society systematically favors the voice of men in power over the women and men that they use that power to abuse. The metaproblem is that this practice is so ingrained in us that we unknowingly bend over backwards to avoid seeing that problem when it's right in front of our face.

If you see through a distorted lens for a long time it becomes almost impossible to see the distortion.

*and elsewhere (see Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein, and a hell of a lot of national politicians of both political parties)

 

[DokterMom]

I doubt this was an isolated incident. You have to build up to propofol a woman and sexually assault her. I am surprised more women haven’t come forward.

More women DID come forward -- If I recall, about three or four. All poor and women of color who were more likely to have their stories disbelieved.

I see we cross-posted @WilcoWorld Our culture of disbelief and entitlement contributes so much to the problem.

 

[deleted109597]

This could (and has) lead some to shrug it off with a "doctors are people, so of course some of them will have human faults".

Since that's clearly me you're talking about, I won't shirk.
You're not wrong. Men get away with more. It's just that in this, like many cases, I'm not sure that the role of him being a doctor has much to do with it (other than access to the drugs).

Although the descriptive statistics for murder have changed a little once people realized that women do actually kill people also, and maybe all crimes should be investigated.

 

[Birdstrike]

Two other women have come forward. One of them had even filed a complaint with the hospital...but it never got seriously investigated.

Fact is that he's a creep, probably a sociopath. This could (and has) lead some to shrug it off with a "doctors are people, so of course some of them will have human faults". But to me the bigger story here* is that our society systematically favors the voice of men in power over the women and men that they use that power to abuse. The metaproblem is that this practice is so ingrained in us that we unknowingly bend over backwards to avoid seeing that problem when it's right in front of our face.

If you see through a distorted lens for a long time it becomes almost impossible to see the distortion.

*and elsewhere (see Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein, and a hell of a lot of national politicians of both political parties)

How do you fix this?

 

[miacomet]

Two other women have come forward. One of them had even filed a complaint with the hospital...but it never got seriously investigated.

Fact is that he's a creep, probably a sociopath. This could (and has) lead some to shrug it off with a "doctors are people, so of course some of them will have human faults". But to me the bigger story here* is that our society systematically favors the voice of men in power over the women and men that they use that power to abuse. The metaproblem is that this practice is so ingrained in us that we unknowingly bend over backwards to avoid seeing that problem when it's right in front of our face.

If you see through a distorted lens for a long time it becomes almost impossible to see the distortion.

*and elsewhere (see Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffery Epstein, and a hell of a lot of national politicians of both political parties)

How many of us believed the accuser? How many of us reflexively leapt to the offender's defense?

If we think about it logically, there is EVERY incentive for a sociopath to create a persona for himself where he appears untouchable (Weinstein, Lauer, and Epstein again) as cover for his nefarious crimes, and very little incentive for a woman (especially a poor woman with little social capital who was unlikely to meet with police sympathy or even belief) to make a false accusation (which happens, but rarely).

So why were we so quick to defend Newman when she was more likely to truth-teller?

 

[thegenius]

Fact is that he's a creep, probably a sociopath. This could (and has) lead some to shrug it off with a "doctors are people, so of course some of them will have human faults". But to me the bigger story here* is that our society systematically favors the voice of men in power over the women and men that they use that power to abuse. The metaproblem is that this practice is so ingrained in us that we unknowingly bend over backwards to avoid seeing that problem when it's right in front of our face.

It's because men have been in power since humans have been around - for thousands of years. It's a very recent thing, only a few decades, where women started gaining power. Hell, women were granted the right to vote in the constitution less than 100 years ago.

Newman did some good things in medical research, he put out a lot of good material. Too bad he MOLESTED women in the process of doing that. I still can't believe what he did. It's such an unbelievable story.

 

[thegenius]

So why were we so quick to defend Newman when she was more likely to truth-teller?

To me it's just so unbelievable. Jacking off on an unconscious patient. Where is the pleasure in that.

We've all heard stories of men abusing their power and sexually abusing women. There are stories every week of groping and touching boobs to public display of nudity to all sorts of things. There are weird-ass people in society who are into creepy, disgusting stuff like bestiality. There are pedophiles. We've heard stories of guys looking out their window and masturbating while looking at women in their homes. We've heard a lot. Using sex dolls. Etc.

But temporarily paralyzing someone for 15 minutes and masturbating all over them? What do you expect the women to think when they wake up?

I wonder if he ever knocked out a woman in the ED and raped them?

 

[Rendar5]

So why were we so quick to defend Newman when she was more likely to truth-teller?

Speaking for others: because the original story was that he paralyzed her with morphine and was masturbating facing away from her and shot a load over his shoulder onto her face while in a crowded ED.
It sounded incredulous because the newspaper doing the original reporting had a few details wrong.

If it doesn’t sound logical, I don’t see a reason to automatically believe a person without some proof or second hand verification or a pattern. Thankfully she had proof and then 3 or 4 secondary complaints over the last couple years clinched it.

I probably would have suspended belief under ordinary circumstances until more info came out.

But as for why I personally reflexively leapt to defense? I directly worked with the guy on some research 6 or 7 years before the incident when I was in medical school for several months; this seemed out of character for him and looked up to him for his research and medical care philosophies. I didn’t want to see that there was a darker side to him. I felt horrible when I realized the truth of what happened.

 

[Brigade4Radiant]

He had to work up to it. The thing is that you generally have the benefit of the doubt if you have money as an accuser unless you’re black.

If the woman didn’t get his sperm he wouldn’t have been convicted. Also many were quick to defend Newman because you are innocent until proven guilty when the sperm sample was confirmed to come from him this board was washing their hands of him.

 

[GeneralVeers]

Definitely a system problem. No reason a young person with non-traumatic musculoskeletal pain should be in the ED for 4 hours. It's a dose of toradol, then plus/minus X-rays and EKG and discharge.

I've often found that the ED medical directors/chairmen are the worst doctors as far as dispo times and ED throughput. The medical director at one place I work actually acknowledges that I will probably just discharge all his sign outs after he leaves. I guess the burden of administrative duties clouds clinical judgement

 

[WilcoWorld]

How do you fix this?

By humbling ourselves with new perspectives.
I started by reading books like this.

 

[WilcoWorld]

Since that's clearly me you're talking about, I won't shirk.
You're not wrong. Men get away with more. It's just that in this, like many cases, I'm not sure that the role of him being a doctor has much to do with it (other than access to the drugs).

Although the descriptive statistics for murder have changed a little once people realized that women do actually kill people also, and maybe all crimes should be investigated.

To be clear, I do not think women are beyond criticism. The fact that men get away with such behavior has more to do with the course of history (and the social structures that have resulted) than with any inherent badness in men or goodness in women.

Case in point: one of Jeffery Epstein's chief enablers was a woman.