Another woman sues Brigham and Women's doctor over alleged sexual molestation in the exam room and prurient off-hours communications

A Stoneham woman today became the latest to sue Brigham and Women's rheumatologist Derrick Todd for both medically unwarranted breast and pelvic exams and off-hours communications that included telling her to read an online article about the benefits of orgasm for "pelvic congestion."

In her medical-malpractice suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Laura Capello became the latest of Todd's former women patients to sue him for such behavior. Capello also sued Brigham and Women's, its Faulkner Hospital subsidiary and Charles River Medical Associates, which has offices in Framingham, where Todd practiced until earlier this year, when Brigham and Women's fired him and he agreed to give up medicine until at least after the state Board of Registration in Medicine completes an investigation.

Capello said she saw Todd for treatment of chronic ailments in 2010 and 2011 and then again between April 2022 and this past June, and said he continued his behavior even after the hospital began investigating him.

On September 26, 2022, after the first medically unnecessary, unwarranted, and non-indicated pelvic examination Dr. Todd performed on the Plaintiff, Dr. Todd inappropriately sent an e-mail to the Plaintiff at 9:30 p.m. directing her to a "Go Ask Alice!" an online Q&A column regarding a condition known as "pelvic congestion." In his e-mail. Dr. Todd directed the Plaintiff specifically to a portion of the column that discussed relief from "pelvic congestion" by orgasm. Throughout his "treatment" of the Plaintiff, Dr. Todd repeatedly and regularly referenced orgasm as the best treatment for the Plaintiff’s conditions and referred to this column.

Capello alleges that in addition to essentially groping her over the course of several exams between September and July at both Charles River offices in Framingham and Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain:

On December 12, 2022, Dr. Todd sent an e-mail to the Plaintiff inquiring about her menstrual cycle and whether she would be menstruating at her next visit. Dr. Todd regularly scheduled Plaintiff’s appointments around her menstrual cycle to ensure that she would not be menstruating during her appointments with him.