A major New York hospital system is being accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse allegations against one of its doctors — again, according to a pair of new lawsuits.
The fresh allegations against Northwell Health Systems come as the healthcare network also faces more than two dozen claims tied to another doctor, Darius Paduch, who was recently sentenced to life in prison for abusing hundreds of patients.
In the suits filed Tuesday, two patients alleged they were abused by Dr. Dennis Feihel between 2022 and 2023 while he worked as a primary care physician with a focus on LGBTQ+ patients at Lenox Hill Hospital, which is owned by Northwell.
They claim the Upper East Side hospital and its parent system failed to investigate their complaints as they were being sexually abused, according to the Manhattan Supreme Court suits.
“Northwell Health had received numerous complaints regarding other physicians sexually assaulting its patients,” the lawsuits state, “but it failed to institute policies and procedures to protect its patients from this known danger.”
Notably, the alleged abuse occurred during and after the first lawsuit was filed against Paduch in 2022.
The sicko urologist was convicted of abusing male patients, some of them minors, under the guise of medical treatment over more than a decade while working at Northwell and other prestigious institutions — Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University. He was sentenced in November 2024.
Both of the new suits, filed under pseudonyms, do not name Feihel as a defendant but are looking to hold Northwell’s alleged negligence to account, a spokesperson for the victims said, with the hopes that the doctor will be criminally charged.
One victim, going by his initials S.H., said that Feihel allegedly sexually abused him by “forcibly touching, caressing, and groping [his] penis” in August 2022.
The other alleged victim, identified as I.B., claims he was abused between 2022 and 2023, with the doctor “digitally, anally penetrating” him and “rubbing his own erect penis,” in addition to also groping the patient’s genitals, according to the suit.
“Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident,” claimed Mallory Allen, attorney for Feihel’s alleged victims and a partner at Seattle, Washington-based law firm PCVA LAW.
Allen also represents over 140 former Paduch patients, with Northwell — the state’s largest healthcare provider and private employer — named as a defendant in 30 of those lawsuits.
“Just like Dr. Paduch, Dr. Feihel was able to use his position of immense trust to sexually abuse patients who went to him seeking medical care,” Allen said.
“The fact that Northwell Health had two physicians sexually abusing its patients during the same time period, despite repeated complaints, shows a disturbing systemic failure and disregard for patient safety.”
Another since-settled lawsuit filed by Allen against Northwell in 2023 claimed that Feihel masturbated a male patient and rubbed his own penis in March 2023.
“Northwell Health and Lenox Hill’s misconduct was so shocking and outrageous that it exceeds the reasonable bounds of decency as measured by what the average member of the community would tolerate and demonstrates an utter disregard of the consequences that would follow,” the suit states.
Feihel, who appears to now be practicing medicine in Michigan, did not return a message left on a number listed for him.
Lenox Hill Hospital and Northwell Health did not respond to requests for comment.
Hundreds of former patients have filed sex abuse lawsuits against Northwell and Paduch, many via a soon-to-close look-back window allowed under the city’s Gender Motivated Violence Act, which allows survivors to sue institutions and abusers beyond the current nine-year statute of limitations.