RICHMOND, Va. -- The defendants called their last witnesses in the trial against the Cumberland Hospital and its former medical director but have not yet rested their case.
46 former patients are suing the New Kent facility and Dr. Daniel Davidow for $930 million. Each plaintiff is asking for $20 million plus damages.
The former patients in this first trial, claim Dr. Davidow inappropriately touched them during femoral pulse exams.
On Tuesday, Judge Bradley Cavedo ruled the plaintiffs had been prejudiced. He will instruct the jury that the Cumberland Hospital concealed or destroyed evidence of billing practices, including admitting diagnosis.
This came after the plaintiffs’ attorney Kevin Biniazan argued that some of his clients’ required medical documents were not produced promptly during discovery.
He said he received them right before the trial, leaving his team at a disadvantage.
The defendants’ first witness of the day was doctor Amy Garlove, a Kentucky pediatrician who testified as an expert in admissions’ physicals.
She said the exams she performs are head to toe and very similar to what doctor Davidow said he performed, including checking the femoral pulse.
She said she does a more extensive sports physical known as a participation physical evaluation (PPE) that includes femoral pulse checks on all children, not just athletes. She said that’s to prevent sudden cardiac deaths. She testified that she’s done thousands.
When doing the exam she said she checks both sides of the inguinal canal to make sure they are equal and checks the inguinal lymph nodes. She said it’s also important to retract the underwear to do tanner staging, which assesses puberty.
Garlove testified that Tanner staging is a visual assessment.
When plaintiffs’ attorney Scott Perry asked her if touching a patient during tanner staging would be considered sexual assault she answered, “yes.”
During cross-examination, Garlove testified it is never appropriate to touch the vagina, the clitoris, or labia minora in a femoral pulse exam but the labia majora may get touched during the exam depending on the patient’s anatomy.
Perry asked Garlove if she was aware that multiple young women complained that Davidow made them feel uncomfortable.
Garlove said she was aware and testified that Dr. Davidow did what he could to make patients feel comfortable and that Davidow performed femoral pulse exams on both males and females.
Garlove testified that Davidow did not document that he was performing femoral pulse checks for sports physicals (PPE) during the admissions exams.
Garlove said that when the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended stopping breast exams on adolescents she took their guidance because they were no longer required.
Garlove testified she believes that was in 2017. Dr. Davidow testified he continued doing breast exams to teach patients how to do self-checks.
Garlove was asked if it bothered her that Dr. Davidow used words like “attractive” to describe patients in medical notes.
She said no and explained that he took descriptive, thorough notes which are helpful to a physician should there be any change in a patient's appearance.
VCU psychiatrist Keyhill Sheorn was the defendants’ final witness.
Sheorn testified that she met with all three plaintiffs one-on-one in person.
The licensed psychiatrist of 35 years said in her opinion two of three of the young women suffer from PTSD, but from trauma that happened before them being admitted to Cumberland.
The plaintiffs will present their rebuttal on Wednesday.
Dr. Davidow was found not guilty of felony sex abuse charges involving two other former Cumberland patients in New Kent County back in April.
CBS 6 investigative reporter Laura French has been covering this case for the last five years. She’s in the courtroom for the trial that’s expected to wrap up Friday but the jury could render a verdict by Thursday.
For live updates follow her on X @lfrenchnews.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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