Dr. Steven R. Matulis and Day Surgery Limited Liability Company also were named as defendants in the suit.
On Feb. 18, 2015, Matulis performed a colonoscopy on the unnamed plaintiff – listed as Jane Doe – and she had been anesthetized with Propofol prior to the surgical procedure and has no recollection of it, according to a complaint filed Nov. 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Following the procedure, Matulis did not speak to or interact with Doe, not even to discuss the results of the colonoscopy, and Doe thought this was unusual.
Doe claims she experienced significant soreness in her abdomen for several days following the procedure.
On April 5, Doe was alerted to a news report that Matulis had been sued for sexually assaulting a female patient during a recent colonoscopy and that his privileges to practice medicine at a local hospital had been suspended and then terminated as a result of the allegations and that he had reportedly engaged in a pattern and practice of sexually assaulting female patients during colonoscopies, according to the suit.
Doe claims she became concerned that she may have been sexually assaulted by Matulis and that her colonoscopy was not performed within the standard of care, even if she had not been physically assaulted by Matulis, “due to him likely being distracted by his reported perversion and his proclivity for sexually assaulting unconscious female patients during colonoscopies.”
Given his pattern and practice of sexually assaulting female patients during colonoscopies, it is more likely than not that Matulis suffered from impaired professional judgment when performing Doe’s colonoscopy and it is more likely than not that Matulis’ impaired professional judgment was chronic in nature in the absence of professional intervention and had likely manifested itself with his female patients for many years, according to the suit.
Doe claims Matulis’ actions are a deviation from the applicable standard of care, which constitutes medical negligence.
Matulis’ actions constitute an invasion of privacy, and, as a result, Doe was harmed, according to the suit.
Doe claims Charleston Gastroenterology Associates is vicariously liable for Matulis’ actions.
Day Surgery was negligent is deviating from the standard of care by failing to implement such quality assurance or performance review or by doing so in an unreasonable and inadequate manner with respect to Matulis, according to the suit.
P. Rodney Jackson of the Law Offices of P. Rodney Jackson said the next step in the lawsuit will be moving to certify the class.
“We’re expecting the class to be in the hundreds,” Jackson said. “We are expecting there to be a lot.”
Jackson said while you can never know how long a lawsuit will take to go through the courts, the attorneys will be pushing for it to move quickly.
“We’re hoping to move it through as fast as possible,” he said. “We’re going full throttle.”
Doe is seeking punitive damages. She is being represented by Jackson and by Stuart Calwell of the Calwell Practice.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 16-C-1723