News report about a Toronto Dr losing license

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.

Jacobo 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 David 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, David 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.

Omg!! I'm speechless! Also very relieved to have changed my referral!

YUCK!

If this is all true which is seems to be-  how truly sick........ those poor women - you are in such a state of hormonal upheaval so many times after WLS..... I was a wreck thought I was losing my mind.

To be so vulnerable and taken advantage by the very person you put so much trust in - he knew just what to say and how to manipulates these situations.......

These women will be in therapy for years and may never recover from this experience personally $10,000.00 doesnt even come close!

What I don't understand is placing a restriction on his license IMO he should be crucified and never be able to operate or be able to put people in this situation again.....

He used drugs to his advantage to have sex...... why should he be allowed to continue practicing in any capacity.......... oooohhhh our justice system leaves much to be desired!

deb