Nurse Awarded $15 Million in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Administrators at Flushing Hospital looked the other way as a doctor sexually harassed a nurse for years, culminating in a pair of violent attacks in 2001. Nurse Janet Bianco, 55, says Dr. Matthew Miller began groping and propositioning her soon after she started working at the hospital in 1993. She tells the Daily News that the 61-year-old physician, who is married, was "very bold, aggressive, he didn't even try to hide it. Patient rooms, hallways, it didn't matter. Wherever he was, it occurred. And I wasn't the only one."

Bianco says she complained to supervisors, but no action was taken, despite the fact that Dr. Miller was previously sanctioned by New York State for having a prolonged sexual relationship with an alcoholic patient for whom he was prescribing anti-anxiety drugs. Classy! Bianco says that during one incident, Dr. Miller tried to force his tongue down her throat as the hospital's medical director, Dr. Peter Barra, looked on. Then, in 2001, Miller "chased Bianco through the halls," finally cornering her in a room with two heavily sedated patients, where he "aggressively groped her below the waist."

Now, in a record-breaking payout for sexual harassment, a Queens jury has awarded Bianco $15 million, ordering the hospital and Miller split the cost. Despite his pervious—er, previous—affair with a patient and the harassment charges, Miller retains his license—though it was suspended for two months and given three years of probation because of what a state board called his "moral unfitness to practice medicine."

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By John Del Signore in News on February 23, 2009 2:11 PM

Comments [rss]

Past Taliban

Hey big boy; is that a thermometer in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Kojak

HELLLOOOOOOO NURSE! =P

Shake Dem Boobies!

citizenerased

It all sounds very Benny Hill

Felix Hoenikker

55? Really?

No candy stripers to grope?

NannyState

The candy-stripers all ran away. This one kept hanging around for more. Nurse Bitch obviously loved the attention.

Snoopy

"aggressively groped her below the waist." Really. 15 mil for some one to touch a persons knees and feet?

pudeljung

I am a little skeptical of how this could go on for so long and get so out of hand without hospital staff and administrators finding out and intervening. I'm not calling her a liar, but if this is true, these are some selfish, opportunistic, cowardly, and deeply flawed humans running the Flushing Hospital. "It's like something out of the Nazis!"

roe

This happens all the time with sexual harassment cases. Even if the victim comes forward, s/he is often told that "it's not that big a deal" and there isn't any action taken.

Female doctors, nurses and other medical staff members are victimized at work more often than one would ever think. The fact that this man still had a license to practice medicine and was allowed to continue working at Flushing Hospital after the FIRST case of misconduct, with the patient, is a good indication of how much these issues are being ignored.

famdoc

a little proofreading or spell check was in order on that comment:

"and other..."

"hospital..."

famdoc

Physicians, an other health professionals, are obliged to report impaired colleagues. I don't understand how the hopsital "looked the other way" on this one, nor do I understand how not a single one of his colleagues anonymously contacted the NYS Department of Education OPME (Office of Professional Misconduct

http://www.op.nysed.gov/med.htm

Or, the Medical Society of the State of New York's Committee for Physician's Health

http://www.mlmic.com/portal/Files/Dateline/DatelineSpring08_12.pdf

Physicians have several other avenues for reporting colleagues who are impaired, addicted, prescribing inappropriately, sexually harassing patients or coworkers, etc. Years ago, these things were swept under the rug, to the detriment of medical practice and, certainly, to the harm of patients. With vigilance and self-policing, the number of cases are far fewer now.

It should never get to this stage.