Ontario doctor sees licence revoked for sexually abusing patients: disciplinary tribunal

(File)

WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse

A disciplinary panel has revoked the licence of a family doctor in Hamilton, Ont. after they found he sexually assaulted two patients and repeatedly disregarded an order not be alone with patients without a monitor present.

According to a decision by the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal, Dr. Koma Diryawish Israel engaged in the sexual abuse of two patients, as well as “several related forms of professional misconduct” between 2017 and 2021.

The tribunal said that on several occasions, Israel made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature and grabbed, kissed, and rubbed the genitals of Patient A, who was also an employee. The tribunal noted that he attempted to pull her pants down on more than one occasion, and during one incident, he pulled his own pants down and told her he wanted to show her how “big it is.”

Patient A recorded audio during some of the incidents, the tribunal said, and ultimately quit her job and terminated the physician-patient relationship in January 2020.

He was arrested and charged with sexual assault and on October 18, 2022, he pleaded guilty to the lesser included offence of common assault. He received a suspended sentence of two years of probation.

“Dr. Israel’s conduct involved persistence and repetition over a lengthy time period in his pursuit of Patient A for apparent sexual gratification. He ignored her protestations, and took advantage of her doubly disadvantaged status, as a woman dependent on her employment for her livelihood, and a patient in a relationship of trust that the registrant betrayed,” the panel wrote.

“Even after Patient A had had enough and terminated both relationships with Dr. Israel, and even after he was arrested and was answering to the criminal justice system, he abused Patient B.”

The tribunal wrote that Israel saw Patient B three times in 2021 and in September of that year, he “engaged in inappropriate touching and remarks of a sexual nature with her.”

According to the panel, Patient B visited the doctor and told him she had been experiencing chest pain, pointing out the area of concern.

The tribunal said he asked the patient to stand up and lift up her shirt and she complied.

“Without explanation or consent, Dr. Israel moved Patient B’s bra, exposing her breasts. He engaged in touching of a sexual nature of Patient B by squeezing Patient B’s breast with his hand. He did not examine the area of her body that she had pointed out to him,” the panel wrote.

The patient, the tribunal said, was “in shock and in pain” as a result of the incident.

“Later that same day, Patient B saw Dr. Israel smoking outside in the parking lot as she was leaving. Dr. Israel engaged in sexually inappropriate behaviour towards Patient B by making remarks of a sexual nature.”

The patient immediately reported the incident to a friend, who contacted police, the tribunal said.

According to the panel, while the complaints were being investigated, Israel was not permitted to see patients without a monitor present, a directive he ignored 110 times between August 2022 and April 2024.

The panel said Israel first came before the disciplinary committee in 2019 when he was previously suspended for one month after he made “sexually charged, unacceptable comments” to a female patient. The doctor, the panel said, made comments about the patient “needing a man” and also questioned whether the woman was “attaining sexual satisfaction by masturbating.”

The committee called his behaviour “degrading” and said it showed “a lack of sensitivity for [the patient’s] comfort.”

He was ordered to participate in the PROBE Ethics and Boundaries program.

“That decision was released on June 28, 2019, just after the first specific incident on June 7, 2019 involving Patient A in our case,” the panel wrote.

“In ordering the joint penalty as requested, the committee expressed the rationale that it ‘will serve to rehabilitate Dr. Israel and [provide] for public protection.’ Instead, this was the beginning of the train of sexual abuse in the second half of 2019 that left Patient A violated, begging him to stop, and pushing him away to free herself.”

They noted that the only “mitigating” factor in the case is that Israel did not contest the allegations outlined by the panel.

“In both cases, Dr. Israel violated the trust that every patient is entitled to rely on that their physician will act in their best interests, and will not take advantage of the physician’s position of authority, especially in matters as private, sensitive and vulnerable as physical and verbal conduct of a sexual nature,” the panel wrote in the decision.