Toronto Band surgeon loses license

[Guest guest]

I'm saddened to share reports like this, but this is far from the

only health care provider who takes advantage of vulnerable

patients.

We are espcially vulnrable if we feel fat, unattractive, unhealthy,

and have lost our self-confidence to obesity. Please always be

careful, and report any occurances like this, to help protect other

patients.

If you have been a victim, please seek help.

sandy r

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Weight-loss surgeon loses licence in sex scandal

Toronto doctor pleads no contest to having sexual relationships with

four patients, including twins, and using illicit drugs with them

KATE HAMMER

December 12, 2008

A leading Canadian expert in bariatric surgery pleaded no contest

yesterday to accusations that he sexually abused female patients over

nearly a decade, leading a disciplinary committee of the College of

Physicians and Surgeons to revoke his medical licence effective

immediately.

o Joffe, a Toronto surgeon who provided weight-loss operations

to obese patients, engaged in concurrent and continuing sexual

relationships with four patients, including a pair of twin sisters,

taking " advantage of the patients' vulnerable position, " according to

Carolyn Silver, a lawyer representing the CPSO.

" I went to him to help me make my life better, to help me transform,

and he destroyed my trust, " said one of the patients, who attended

the proceedings and can be identified only as Patient D.

In a personal-impact statement read to the hearing by Ms. Silver,

Patient D wrote that she went to Dr. Joffe at a time of " personal

desperation " and " when my life began to get better he took advantage

of my feelings of thankfulness toward him. "

Dr. Joffe performed gastroplasty on Patient D in 1999, the hearing

was told, and during follow-up visits engaged her in sexual

intercourse and oral sex, sometimes at Scarborough Hospital, where

Dr. Joffe had hospital privileges.

During a hearing recess, tears pooling along her dark lashes, Patient

D said, " I thought I was the only one. " Both she and Dr. Joffe were

married when the abuse began, she said, and by the time it ended in

2006, so had her marriage.

The committee also heard that Dr. Joffe, 59, engaged the twin

sisters, identified as Patients A and B, by complimenting them and

telling them it was every man's dream to have sex with twins. Ms.

Silver read uncontested allegations that he used illicit drugs with

both patients and " engaged in various sexual acts with them, both

separately and together, " sometimes at his office.

Candidates for bariatric surgery, who generally have a body mass

index over 40, are especially vulnerable to compliments from an

authority figure such as a doctor, said Macklin, director of

Weightcare weight management clinics.

Obese patients often struggle with " false and negative thoughts, " and

a physician's role is to provide an antidote to those thoughts, he

said. " Someone who is a trusted individual by the nature of their

profession that would cross the line into such an activity is nothing

less than a trauma. "

In their impact statements, all of the patients wrote that they were

seeking counselling to help cope with anxiety and depression

resulting from their abuse.

Dr. Joffe, despite arguments from his lawyer, Porter, was

ordered by the committee to pay $10,000 to each of the four victims

toward their therapy and counselling.

Dr. Joffe did not attend his disciplinary hearing and Mr. Porter

declined comment.

A woman who answered the phone at his North York home asked for

privacy.

" It's a difficult situation, " she said.

On a forum called obesityhelp.com, patients of Dr. Joffe posted

reviews that were generally positive about his professionalism. They

indicated that he was still performing surgery in recent months.

The CPSO placed a restriction on his licence in May of last year

prohibiting him from engaging in professional encounters with females

without the presence of a monitor.