Published: Oct 10, 2013
By Chris Kaiser
Full Story: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/GeneralProfessionalIssues/42211
A recent report of a pediatric specialist involved in child pornography made me wonder about the magnitude of pediatric physician involvement in child porn.
The sentinel case was that of Christopher Pelloski, 39, the former director of Ohio State University’s pediatric radiation oncology program. Internet reports on Tuesday said he was intending to plead guilty to possessing child pornography.
After reading about Pelloski, I searched Google and found that, unfortunately, cases like his are not uncommon.
Robert P. Dickey, 74, who served as a long-time pediatrician in Washington, pleaded guilty in September 2013 to possessing child pornography. Prosecutors said he viewed graphic sexual photographs of young children in an office adjacent to the rooms where he conducted exams.
A story on Aug. 22, 2013, reported that pediatrician Yancy Craft, 43, of Columbus, Miss., pleaded guilty to possession of child porn.
Mark Janosko, 47, a family physician in McCandless, Pa., was arraigned July 19, 2013, on charges of possessing and distributing child porn, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He said, according to the report, that he knew viewing child pornography was illegal but that it had not interfered with his daily life.
That’s at least one a month for the last 4 months, from a simple Google search.
The list goes on: more pediatricians, more family doctors, internal medicine physicians, and a pediatric hematology oncology fellow, as well as psychiatrists, sports medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, emergency room doctors, and physician assistants.
There are two themes that emerged from the reports:
- Many of the doctors were later found to possess more porn than they had originally admitted to owning.
- All of the accounts noted there were no complaints of sexual abuse against the physicians by parents and that none of the porn appeared to involve patients.
My question to healthcare providers is, What might lead you to suspect a colleague is involved in child pornography (or child sexual abuse)? Are there known signs that might tip you off?
Have you ever suspected a colleague of being involved in child porn or child sexual abuse? If so, how did you handle it?