NEW KENT COUNTY, Va. -- The former medical director of Cumberland Hospital took the stand Friday in a $930 million lawsuit against him and the New Kent children’s hospital. In all, 46 former patients are suing.
The three female patients in this first trial, claim Dr. Daniel Davidow inappropriately touched them during femoral pulse exams.
Davidow, who became medical director of the Cumberland Hospital in 1996, testified that he wanted to be a veterinarian but then had “a sense of little patients being frightened and had a need to take care of them,” he said. The published physician taught at VCU for nearly 20 years as well.
Davidow said he formed his own company and was under contract with Cumberland to provide physician services (as medical director) and find contractors to staff the hospital. He testified that his daughter worked for Cumberland as a nurse practitioner.
Davidow said once a patient arrived at Cumberland they would go through the pre-admission process that would entail paperwork. That typically lasted an hour.
The patient would then have to have an admissions exam. Davidow testified that since opening Cumberland in 1983, he estimated performing up to 4,000 admissions exams. He testified that the last time he did a pelvic exam at the hospital was in the early 1990s and that he never laid hands on a patient other than for medical purposes.
Davidow explained patients were checked every 15 minutes and some every five minutes and that “blue sheets” were signed off on. When a patient had an exam it was indicated on their “blue sheet” with an “E.”
Davidow told the jury that regardless of a patient’s history he felt obligated to do his own physical exam
and that each doctor decided on the listing of systems they needed to collect and had their own routines and ways to go about it.
He said every physical exam had a chaperone in the room, typically a case manager. On rare occasions, it was a parent. He said once in the room, he would discuss things he felt were more difficult for the patient to discuss in front of their parents like drug use and sexual history.
Davidow said to make patients feel more comfortable he performed the exams with the patients' clothes on.
He testified that he would take their pulse on their hand. He said he would then place his other hand on their shoulder and then move to their head.
He said he did a head-to-toe exam and checked their head for lice and when checking their hearing he’d do a whisper test and rub his fingers together in their ears and say, “Happy Birthday” or “Merry Christmas.”
When discussing the exam with his attorney Bob Donnelly Davidow said, “People don’t know what you’re doing.” “They may very well be confused by what you are doing.”
Davidow explained that even though the American Cancer Society no longer recommends a clinical or breast self-exam for adolescents, he still felt it was important to teach girls self-exams. He testified it was part of some of his exams while the patient was clothed and he would have them assist over his hand. He would also check their heart and lungs and then move to the abdomen.
Donnelly had Davidow demonstrate his femoral pulse examinations in front of the jury on a mannequin on a table. Donnelly asked Davidow, “Do you ever touch the vulva?” Davidow responded, “No.” and then Davidow said, “Dr. Val does a better exam than I do.” But he acknowledged that he knows the femoral pulse exam makes patients feel uncomfortable.
Donnelly asked, “Do you ever touch the labia?” Davidow responded, “No.” and said, “It’s not unusual for patients to not know their anatomy.” Davidow acknowledged that he has no specific recollection of doing the plaintiffs’ exams the way he demonstrated.
Davidow testified that he carried a notebook in his pocket during his exams so that he could document anything abnormal about the exams to dictate it for the patient’s chart at a later time.
Donnelly and Cumberland attorney Joe Farchione went through multiple accusers’ medical records with Davidow and had him read detailed notes he’d taken documenting their progress and calling into question testimony they’d given.
He read an email he received on Oct. 21, 2015, which was the day after one of his alleged victim’s exams. Her mom was thanking him for what he was doing for her daughter and she called her daughter “delusional” and mentioned all the trauma she had been through.
Davidow said, “You can’t care for a patient, if you don’t care about a patient.”
Donnelly also asked Davidow about his interactions with patients in the hospital and his alleged interactions with current and former patients on social media.
Davidow said when he made rounds on the unit everyone would want to talk to him at once for attention. He said teenage girls would give him hugs. “I would pat them on their shoulders and on their back,” he explained.
He said he felt he needed to stay connected with discharged patients on Facebook so he told them if you want to friend me you can because he said patients felt like “dropping off a cliff.” He said he did not friend request them.
In cross-examination, attorney Kevin Biniazan pointed out that Davidow was not just communicating with discharged patients. He showed Davidow Facebook communication he had with a current patient where Davidow wrote “he needed his goodbye hug.” Davidow admitted to the communication but said the patient was over the age of 18.
Biniazan said he wanted to talk to Davidow about three things: misunderstanding, innuendo and cynicism.
He began by asking him about his exam of plaintiff HB and how he touched her inguinal canal. He testified Thursday that he did not, but Biniazan played his deposition from June 26, 2024, where he admitted he did. He then asked Davidow and he responded, “Well apparently.” He then said, “I don’t know if I got mixed up in the deposition.”
HB testified Wednesday, “Dr. Davidow placed a finger on outer labia switched sides and finger touched sensitive part when he switched sides.” HB said it was not an appropriate touch.
Biniazan then asked Davidow about putting his hands down Plaintiff AE’s pants. Davidow disputed that statement. Biniazan said you told me you put 75% of your hand down plaintiff AE’s pants in your deposition. They played the clip for the jury. Davidow explained how he measured from the waist versus the pubic line.
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Biniazan questioned Davidow’s femoral pulse exam hand placement knowing many of the patients he was seeing had a history of sexual abuse. Dr. Davidow said he didn’t want to alarm patients by picking up his hand when he switched sides while checking pulses.
Biniazan provided Davidow with a January 2017 rules and regulations form which indicated that chaperones must be documented. Dr. Davidow acknowledged that some girls were uncomfortable before the chaperone policy was in place and he still didn’t document it when it was in place.
Biniazan showed an email that Dr. Davidow sent to a Cumberland manager about an accuser in 2014 at 10:30 pm. He explained that a patient was “freaking” due to a breast and femoral pulse exam and that he did and he suspected it was from a past molestation. He said the exam was “triggering.”
Davidow testified he started changing the way he did his femoral pulse exams in 2017 after two of the three plaintiffs in this case reported him to an intern during a group therapy session at the hospital.
William Hollingsworth testified the allegations came out when the girls discussed Davidow’s “magical touch” to their intimate parts while checking their pulse.
They advised the William and Mary graduate student at the time he would also check their pulse under their breasts and play with their hair during the physical twirling it around his finger.
It was documented in an April 2017 police report when Davidow was under investigation for inappropriately touching five female patients. That probe ultimately determined those allegations were unfounded.
Davidow said he started to check femoral pulses over underwear after that.
Biniazan asked Davidow why he used the word “attractive” to describe patients in their notes. He explained that it may identify a girl who is more likely to be a victim of sexual assault. Biniazan asked if he thought one of the accusers was attractive. He said, “No.” Biniazan asked if he thought HB was attractive he said, “As a child, she is not unattractive.” Biniazan then asked if he thought AE was attractive and he responded, “Just average.”
Dr. Davidow was found not guilty of felony sex abuse charges involving two other former Cumberland patients in New Kent County back in April.
The plaintiffs rested their case on Wednesday.
The trial is expected to run through Sept. 27.
CBS 6 investigative reporter Laura French has been covering this case for the last five years. She’s in the courtroom for the three-week trial.
For live updates follow her on X @lfrenchnews.
Depend on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for complete coverage of this developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
