Her usual doctor wasn’t available, so the 21-year-old woman was scheduled with a different Cedars-Sinai Medical Center gynecologist that she had never seen before: Dr. Barry J. Brock.
She was the day’s last patient, and Brock sent his nurse home as soon as she checked in. He led the woman to an examination room where he told her to undress completely. He remained in the room and watched as she did, without offering a hospital gown or privacy covering.
He told her to lie exposed on the table and proceeded to stroke and grope the most intimate parts of her body, while commenting on her physical attractiveness. The woman had visited a gynecologist before and knew how a routine exam unfolded. Brock’s actions felt nothing like medical care.
She went home and told her mother. They immediately scheduled a meeting with the woman’s regular gynecologist, also a Cedars-Sinai physician. He listened. He told her he would take care of it.
This was in 1986. If any further action was taken as a result of her report, she never heard about it.
Brock continued to see patients for nearly 40 years more, until Cedars-Sinai revoked his hospital privileges in 2024 following what it described as “concerning complaints” from patients. The doctor to whom the patient reported Brock, who has since died, was later promoted to department head at Cedars-Sinai, according to a lawsuit.
The woman is one of more than 500 former patients suing Brock and the facilities where he worked, claiming that Cedars and other medical practices knowingly concealed his alleged sexual abuses and medical misconduct from unsuspecting patients.
At least four of the plaintiffs were minors when they were first abused, according to court records. Brock has denied any wrongdoing.
“If Cedars had just done something, anything, to stop this man 40-some odd years ago, how many women would have been saved? How many women wouldn’t have had to go through this?” said the woman, now 61. “They could have done something. I came forward. I did everything I could do. … I may not be the first who reported him, but I’ve got to be one of the earlier ones.”
The woman is one of more than a dozen former patients who say they alerted Cedars personnel to Brock’s conduct, according to the 17 civil suits filed against Brock and Cedars-Sinai since October 2024.
Six patients say they reported Brock’s behavior directly to Cedars-Sinai through the patient services hotline or other channels, according to the complaints.
Eight additional patients say they told a Cedars physician about disturbing experiences with Brock.
Others complained to Cedars nurses or to Brock’s front desk staff, the lawsuits allege.
To the best of the patients’ knowledge, none of these complaints resulted in disciplinary action.
“This is normal for him,” one former patient claims a nurse told her, after Brock massaged her breasts with both hands during a visit to discuss her hernia operation.
“Well, you know Dr. Brock,” another patient said she was told after she asked a nurse why Brock did not wear gloves during his unusually long vaginal examinations.
Brock, who is now in his mid-70s, completed his medical residency at Cedars-Sinai in 1981 and was part of its physician network until 2018, when he went into private practice. He continued to deliver babies, perform procedures and see patients at the medical center until Cedars-Sinai terminated his hospital privileges in 2024.
He surrendered his medical license in June rather than contest an accusation of negligent care filed against him by the Medical Board of California.
“Dr. Brock denies all of the allegations that have been made against him,” his attorney Louis H. DeHaas said in a statement.
“The type of behavior alleged about Dr. Barry Brock is counter to Cedars-Sinai’s core values and the trust we strive to earn every day with our patients,” Cedars-Sinai said in a statement. “We recognize the legal process must now take its course, and we remain committed to Cedars-Sinai’s sacred healing mission and to serving our community. ” The medical center has said that privacy laws prohibit it from confirming the existence of any patient complaints or disciplinary action taken against Brock before 2024.
The lawsuits detail abuses spanning almost the entirety of Brock’s four-decade career, and attempts to report them stretching back almost just as long.
More than 100 patients accuse Brock of inserting ungloved fingers into their vaginas or anuses during examinations, which the Federation of State Medical Boards lists as an example of sexual impropriety. Dozens say he massaged their genitals in a way that seemed intended to sexually stimulate them, or repeatedly thrust speculums, ultrasound wands or his fingers into their bodies in a sexually violating manner.
Touching a patient’s breasts or genitals without a legitimate medical reason is classified as a sexual violation by the federation, which represents the nation’s medical and osteopathic boards, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Some plaintiffs saw him once and never returned. Others say they were abused at multiple appointments over several years.
Several former patients said they endured the abuse because Brock was the only gynecologist or obstetrician they’d visited, and they assumed the uncomfortable examinations were standard, according to the complaints. Others said that they had high-risk pregnancies and did not want to jeopardize their access to medical care by complaining.
One former patient saw Brock once in 2010 when her regular physician was not available. During the pelvic examination, Brock abruptly thrust ungloved fingers into her vagina and moved them aggressively inside her body. When she told him he was hurting her, he left the room abruptly without washing his hands.
Following the visit, the patient told multiple Cedars-Sinai employees and her regular Cedars-Sinai gynecologist about her experience with Brock. The physician, according to the complaint, replied that “what she described was Brock’s usual demeanor,” the complaint alleges.
Another former patient contacted Cedars-Sinai in 2013 during her first pregnancy to request a female obstetrician. She was scheduled with Brock after being told no female physician was available, one lawsuit states.
At her appointments, she said, Brock typically performed two separate physical examinations: one with a nurse present that unfolded like a routine pelvic exam, and a second with no chaperone in the room, in which Brock fondled her clitoris, aggressively inserted ungloved fingers into her vagina and groped her breasts with both hands, the lawsuit states.
Following her child’s birth, Brock sutured her perineal area in a way that caused ongoing pain, the complaint states. Dozens of women allege that Brock placed unnecessary sutures in their perineal area after childbirth, which he said — often after the procedure was completed — would make their vaginal openings “tighter.”
With friends’ encouragement, the former patient called Cedars-Sinai in 2014 to lodge a formal complaint.
“The nurse with whom she spoke told her, ‘I am not supposed to tell you this, but we have received other complaints about Dr. Brock,’ ” the lawsuit states.
The former patient “never received a written response from Cedars, however, nor was she advised that Cedars had done anything with respect to her complaint,” the suit states. “The fact that Cedars did not see fit to follow up or pursue her complaint made her believe that her complaint must not have risen to the level necessary to require a response. It made her doubt her own response to Brock’s treatment of her.” The woman has not visited a gynecologist in more than a decade.
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