Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. Medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology. The top ranking Johns Hopkins Hospital agreed for settlement of US$190 mn in July 2014 in a class action suit, the largest ever in the history of hospitals in America, for gross violation of doctor-patient trust in a case of medical malpractice. The hospital failed to protect the patient privacy rights, in evaluating existing employees and ensuring that employee performance meets the standards, norms and metrics. An obstetrician-gynaecologist betrayed the trust of patients by ‘harmful and offensive sexual’ contact and covertly taking pictures of their intimate parts. In this medical malpractice, nobody died because of a doctor’s error. Nobody was injured. The doctor did not fail to diagnose a critical condition, nor did he have an extramarital relationship with patients. There was no evidence that the doctor shared the secretly taken images with anyone. Pelvic examination was not performed on unconscious surgical patients without their knowledge and yet the hospital faced the largest settlement ever as women were devastated due to the feeling of an extreme breach of faith, breach of trust and betrayal. The multidisciplinary nature of this case makes it interesting and serves the learning needs in human resource management, hospital administration, patient right laws, and ethics in governance. This case is an eye opener for corporate hospitals.

Do I need to take a security guard to the gynaecologist? Maybe I do”1 lamented Maria Lennon, a victim of Dr. Nikita A Levy, a Johns Hopkins obstetrician2-gynaecologist3 who secretly videotaped and photographed his female patients for over two decades. Several medical school classmates of Dr. Levy, who hadn’t seen him since their 1984 graduation, described him with words like ‘quiet’ and ‘calm’. Dr. Scott Hayworth of Mount Kisco, NY recollected “he was a caring person who was well-liked by his peers. He was never inappropriate.

“He handed our children to us,” said Fanya O’Donoghue, 35, who with her husband has three young sons. “I keep thinking this can’t be true.

It all started with a female clinical technician who had worked for two years with Dr. Nikita Levy, a 54-year old obstetrician-gynaecologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, got suspicious of the pen hanging on a lanyard around his neck. She suspected the pen contained a tiny camera (Figure 1) and was being used to take inappropriate images of female patients. On several occasions, she noticed Levy stood up while performing pelvic6 examinations on patients. He often pulled the pen attached to the lanyard down, as if directing it.

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