CHARLESTON – Another lawsuit has been filed against Dr. Steven R. Matulis, Charleston Area Medical Center and Charleston Gastroenterology Associates, alleging the physician sexually assaulted patients.
Adriana Fleming claims Dr. Steven Matulis performed a colonoscopy procedure on her on Aug. 4, 2015, according to a complaint filed March 31 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
Fleming claims she was alerted to news reports that Matulis had been sued for sexually assaulting a female patient during a recent colonoscopy and that his privileges to practice medicine at CAMC had been suspended and then terminated as a result of the allegations and that Matulis had been witnessed by CAMC staff to have been sexually assaulting female patients during colonoscopies.
The plaintiff became concerned that she, too, may have been sexually assaulted and that the colonoscopy she received was not performed within the standard of care and not medically reliable, even if she had not been physically assaulted by Matulis, according to the suit.
Fleming claims a CAMC employee or agent witnessed Matulis sexually assaulting a female patient during a colonoscopy or similar procedure at CAMC on July 15, 2015, and, other employees or agents witnessed Matulis sexually assaulting female patients during colonoscopies or similar procedures on multiple occasions after July 15, 2015, until Matulis was escorted from the premises.
“Upon information and belief, Dr. Matulis performed in excess of 350 colonoscopies or similar procedures on female patients at CAMC from on or about July 15, 2015, through the date he was escorted from the premises, including the aforementioned procedure on the then 18-year-old plaintiff,” the complaint states.
Matulis’ actions were a deviation from the applicable standards of care and was an invasion of privacy, according to the suit.
Fleming claims CAMC deviated from the standard of care by either failing to implement a quality assurance or performance review or by doing so in an unreasonable and inadequate manner with respect to Matulis.
Fleming is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. She is being represented by Stuart Calwell of the Calwell Practice and P. Rodney Jackson of the Law Offices of P. Rodney Jackson.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 17-C-456
