Four More Women Sue NorthShore And Its Disgraced Gynecologist

SKOKIE, IL — Four more women have come forward to accuse a former NorthShore University HealthSystem gynecologist of sexual assaulting them under the pretense of providing medical care. At least half a dozen women have described abuse at the hands of the doctor, whose license to practice medicine was suspended last year. Patch has learned NorthShore has already resolved one of the lawsuits it faces over the doctor's behavior in a confidential settlement, and more women plan to file suit against the disgraced doctor.

Fabio Ortega, 72, of Chicago's West Ridge neighborhood, was arrested last September and charged with one count of criminal sexual assault in connection with a January 2017 incident at his Skokie office. After Patch published a review of more than 18 months of redacted police reports from the investigation, at least five other women reported abuse.

"As a result of The Patch article about Patient C, and subsequent news that Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against NorthShore and Ortega in January of 2019, additional female patients of NorthShore were finally able to discover, for the first time, that Ortega also sexually assaulted them under the guise of providing proper medical care," according to the women's suits.

The complaints claim that a NorthShore public relations manager lied to Patch in the wake of Ortega's arrest when it released a statement saying that "upon learning of these allegations well over a year ago, we took immediate steps to remove the physician from patient care."

Instead, according to the lawsuit, NorthShore continued to allow Ortega to be alone with patients long after learning of complaints of inappropriate behavior. As a result, the company's "multi-billion dollar revenue includes the income it earned from its patients and their insurance companies for Ortega's sexual assaults that were charged as medically necessary exams."

Ortega received his medical degree from University Autonoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and was licensed to practice medicine in Illinois from 1982 until it was suspended in September 2018, a week after his arrest, for "engaging in sexual misconduct with a patient at his practice," according to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

But even before he was hired by NorthShore in 2004 to work at its facilities in Evanston, Lincolnwood, Skokie and Wilmette, among other places, Ortega had already been sued at least three times in Cook County by women who said that they suffered "death, severe bodily harm and/or severe emotional distress," according to the lawsuits.

"Year after year, NorthShore dismissed and covered-up complaints about Ortega, allowing him to continue work with unfettered access to its female patients, and then billed them for his abuses masked as medically necessary care. As a result of NorthShore's intentional concealment of the truth about Ortega, [the women suing him] also fell prey," it said.

"Then, in 2017, NorthShore learned that Ortega was under criminal investigation for sexually assaulting a patient. In response, rather than provide the police with requested information and interviews, NorthShore began a separate investigation with its own lawyers and executive officer while excluding police participation," according to the suit. "During this time, Ortega continued to work."

Police reports show the company allowed Skokie police investigators to question Ortega about six months into the investigation in the presence of a NorthShore attorney.

"Even though Ortega lied to the police, NorthShore still allowed him to work and commit additional sexual assaults disguised as medically necessary exams while financially profiting from his exploitation," according to the complaints.

"NorthShore also failed to investigate whether Ortega had sexually assaulted any other of its female patients," the suit said. Instead, it allowed Ortega the chance to "voluntarily, and quietly retire."

Hospital spokespeople have declined to answer questions about when or if it ever terminated Ortega's employment and when or if it notified his patients of the allegations against him.

Starting more than seven years ago, women reported to NorthShore that Ortega had engaged in "sexually perverted" misconduct while they were patients, according to the suit.

A NorthShore patient reported on-the-job sexual misconduct by Ortega to state regulators in 2014, recounting that he had called her breasts "appetizing," asked about her sexual fantasies and demanded she meet him outside of work in order to get her copies of her medical records.

The women who filed suits against Ortega include a 34-year-old Skokie woman in "a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community" who described being assaulted by Ortega on Aug. 12, 2017 shortly after giving birth at Evanston Hospital and just one day after he was questioned by Skokie police detectives. She did not realize how inappropriate Ortega's conduct had been until reading the October 2018 report in the Skokie Patch, according to her suit.

The plaintiffs also include a 40-year-old Chicago woman and her 42-year-old husband who met with Ortega at his Lincolnwood clinic in March 2016. According to her suit, Ortega falsified her medical records and instructed her to return without a medical reason. She had gone to the doctor due to an irregular menstrual cycle and possible early menopause and found herself fielding intimate sexual questions and being subjected to an internal massage that she believed, at the time, was medically necessary.

A 42-year-old Evanston woman who visited NorthShore in July 2014 also filed a lawsuit. She described Ortega penetrating her with his ungloved fingers while asking questions about her sex life, according to he suit. Like the other woman, she did not believe at first that she was being assaulted. But as soon as she heard that a NorthShore OB/GYN had been accused of assaulting a female patient, she "immediately suspected it was Ortega before even hearing his name," according to the suit.

The sixth woman to sue NorthShore and Ortega over allegations of abuse is a 35-year-old Chicago woman, who was joined in the suit by her husband. After experiencing a miscarriage in December 2013, Ortega performed an examination that included personal questions she found inappropriate. After that, every time NorthShore staff tried to schedule her for an appointment with Ortega she avoided it, telling them about the incident.

But NorthShore told her "she had to see whatever doctor was available," leaving her to constantly rearrange her schedule to avoid being scheduled with Ortega. During her pregnancy, she was so upset with the company's policy that she posted an online review in March 2016 saying she "had a bad experience" with him and felt "like my problem is being dismissed and like they don't care," according to the suit. "I have told multiple people I do not feel comfortable with him, and I basically got told too bad."

She told multiple members of NorthShore staff that she would refuse to let Ortega deliver her baby. His "mere presence caused her to be terrified during what was supposed to be an exciting occassion," when she was admitted at Evanston Hospital to give birth.

"Oh, I know what you're talking about," a nurse told her after she explained she didn't want Ortega delivering her baby, she recalled. The nurse discussed the request with a superior and returned to deliver the news that the woman's insurance might not cover the procedure if she elected to use an emergency on-call doctor instead of Ortega, according to the suit.

"Despite NorthShore's doctors and nurses having direct knowledge that [the patient] did not want Ortega to touch her, they still ignored her and allowed Ortega to break her water," the complaint said. After learning that she needed a caesarian section, the woman asked staff to wait until Ortega's shift was over. Staff again ignored her request to avoid having Ortega perform her discharge exam from the hospital, resulting in him groping her breast without a medical need after telling her he needed to figure out if it was "tender," according to the suit.

Officials have confirmed criminal investigations are ongoing in Lincolnwood and Evanston in connection with the allegations detailed out in the suits. In cases involving allegations of abuse by medical professionals, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office needs to get a medical expert to review records. According to the suit and responses to public records requests, this office does not budget any resources toward hiring medical experts. Thus, "the process is delayed because prosecutors must locate a volunteer medical expert."But a spokesperson for the state's attorney's office said seeking an expert, "whether paid or unpaid, does not result in a delay in prosecuting the case."

After the first set of civil lawsuits were filed in January, Jim Anthony, NorthShore's senior director of public relations, issued a prepared statement and declined to provide further information.

"We take these accusations very seriously. Since this remains an active legal matter, we are unable to comment on these allegations. We find any professional misconduct of this nature to be deeply disturbing and not reflective of the high standards of care we stand for and that our patients expect from us," it said. "We continue to investigate and work with authorities. The physician in question is no longer employed by us."

According to the lawsuits, there are at least nine woman — who learned not from NorthShore but from news reports — that they were sexually assaulted by Ortega.

"Rather than investigate the extent of Ortega's conduct and the harm he caused to its trusting female patients," the lawsuits alleged, "NorthShore has chosen to be in lockstep with institutions like Michigan State University, the University of Southern California, Columbia University, and Ohio State University, by prioritizing Ortega over its female patients just like the other institutions' sexual predator-doctors Dr. Larry Nasser, Dr. George Tyndall, Dr. Robert Hadden, and Dr. Richard Strauss, in an effort to hide behind ignorance, plausible deniability, and burden shifting onto its patients by claiming they should have known that the doctor they implicitly trusted was sexually abusing them under a perfectly crafted scheme of deception and abused trust — all of which was facilitated, and continues to be facilitated, by NorthShore."

Ortega is due back in court on the criminal charge in Skokie on June 13. The next court hearing in the civil suits has been set for July 18.

Earlier:

• NorthShore Put Patients At Risk Of Indicted Gynecologist: Suits
• NorthShore Gynecologist Indicted On Sexual Assault Charge