What to know
Under the plan announced by Columbia and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, patients who were abused by Hadden during his decades-long career will have the opportunity to seek compensation from a $100 million settlement fund. Victims can also sue under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, but the one-year deadline to file lawsuits ends after Nov. 23. The fund will open in January 2024 and will remain open for at least a year, they said. .
NEW YORK — Columbia University and a university-affiliated hospital announced Monday that they will notify 6,500 former patients of disgraced gynecologist Robert Hadden about federal sex crimes for which he was convicted earlier this year.
Under the plan announced by Columbia and Columbia University Irving Medical Center, patients who were abused by Hadden during his decades-long career will have the opportunity to seek compensation from a $100 million settlement fund.
Victims can also sue under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, but the one-year deadline to file lawsuits ends after November 23.
Hadden was convicted in January on four counts of enticing victims to cross state lines so he could sexually abuse them. He was sentenced in July to 20 years in prison.
Hadden, 65, previously pleaded guilty to state charges and admitted that he had sexually abused patients.
Federal prosecutors said Hadden sexually abused patients from 1993 to at least 2012, while he worked at Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
“We owe it to the brave survivors and the entire Columbia community to fully reckon with Hadden’s abuse,” Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Irving Medical Center CEO, the University of California, said in a news release. Dr. Katrina Armstrong. “Columbia failed these survivors and we are deeply sorry.”
Shafik and Armstrong said the multi-pronged plan to address the legacy of Hadden’s abuse will include an independent investigation to examine the failures that allowed the abuse to continue and the establishment of a center for patient safety.
Among Hadden’s accusers was Evelyn Yang, wife of former presidential candidate and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, who said Hadden abused her when she was pregnant with their first child.
Evelyn Yang, in a joint statement with accuser Marissa Hoechstetter, pressured the university to increase the amount of the settlement fund and ensure that all of Hadden’s patients received notifications before the Adult Survivors Act deadline.
“While we are pleased with the university’s plan to support survivors and investigate their own failures, we remain committed to ensuring they deliver on these promises,” the statement said.
University officials said a direct notice will be sent to nearly 6,500 of Hadden’s former patients to alert them of his conviction and sentence and to inform them of their right to sue or seek compensation from the settlement fund.
The fund will open in January 2024 and will remain open for at least a year, they said.
A lawyer for Hadden’s accusers said former patients were encouraged to participate in a settlement process that he said was underfunded and designed without victims’ participation.
“I do not support this plan,” Anthony DiPietro said in an emailed statement, “because Columbia’s proposal allows the university and its attorneys to retain full power to decide the value of each person’s claim. “While our state and federal court systems may be imperfect, they remain the best method for resolving civil disputes fairly and equitably.”
2023-11-14 06:49:34
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