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StumbleuponSecond patient testifies to doctor's misdeeds
Thursday, July 24, 2008
DAYTON — Dr. Suresh Gupta had just given the woman an epidural shot to the back of her neck, and a nurse had just left the area, when Gupta reached under her gown and bra and squeezed her breasts, the woman testified Thursday, July 24.
"He grabbed and pulled and grabbed and pulled three times," the woman said. "It was right after he gave me the shot in my neck. I could not move."
Gupta, 54, a partner at Pain Management Associates in Riverside and Springboro, is on trial for four counts of gross sexual imposition. The woman, who is 44, is the second of four former patients to testify against Gupta.
The first, a 26-year-old woman, testified Wednesday that Gupta grabbed her breast while he was giving her a shot in her temple.
The 44-year-old woman said she suffered from severe back pain and went to Gupta's practice between 2001 and 2004. In August 2004, she checked herself in to Kettering Medical Center for detoxification from the morphine she was prescribed to treat her pain.
During her treatment by Gupta's office, the woman was on morphine, plus a drug to keep her awake, since the morphine made her sleep all day. She was also given drugs for muscle spasms.
During direct examination by assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Kim Melnick, the woman said she had been told that she had to be perfectly still after an epidural shot, because the fluid could leak out, which would be very painful.
She said had gotten seven epidurals from Gupta. The six were non-eventful. The alleged assault occurred on the seventh, she said.
She was told to wear a gown, but to leave her bra on but unhooked.
After Gupta grabbed her breasts, she demanded to know what he was doing. He said he was trying to unsnap her bra, she testified.
During her testimony, the woman squeezed a red stress ball.
The woman acknowledged that she has been a regular smoker of marijuana for more than 20 years, for both recreation and to help her sleep, and that she had tested positive for marijuana during drug screens at Gupta's office.
She did not report the incident until she saw a television news report about another woman who had accused Gupta. That was two years after the incident occurred.
During cross examination by defense attorney Dennis Lieberman, the woman acknowledged that she had smoked marijuana on Tuesday night. She also admitted that she had signed a narcotics agreement with Gupta's office, stating that she would not use illegal drugs, but that she never had any intention to comply with the agreement.
"It doesn't change what he did to me," the woman said.
Lieberman questioned her about several discrepancies between her testimony and her medical records from Gupta's office. She said that she received the epidural in the neck some time in 2003. Lieberman said the records showed that her neck epidurals all happened in early 2002.
The woman also testified that she was not drug-tested during the first two years she went to Gupta's practice. Lieberman produced a drug test from February 2002, or two months after she started going to the practice.
The woman said she disputed the records.
"I deny the dates and times," she said. "I think they're messed up."
She also denied that Gupta's employees threatened to discharge her as a patient if she tested positive for marijuana again.
"I was told to quit smoking and come back," the woman told Lieberman. "I was never told I was going to be discharged."
