Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

On Feb. 15, four women came forward and filed a lawsuit in Fourth District Court against Dr. David Broadbent, a Provo obstetrics and gynecology specialist, accusing him of sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Since the first media reports on Feb. 18, that list of four plaintiffs has grown to a major class action lawsuit with 50 women, according to Adam Sorenson, with the law firm Gross & Rooney and attorney for the case.

On Thursday, Sorenson said they anticipate even more women will come forward.

Broadbent has practiced medicine in Provo and has been seeing patients for nearly 40 years. He has also been given privileges at Mountain Star hospitals, also named in the suit. He currently does not have privileges with Mountain Star. Broadbent has also seen patients at Utah Valley Hospital, owned by Intermountain Healthcare.

According to Lance Madigan, spokesperson for Utah Valley Hospital, Broadbent no longer is allowed to work in the hospital. “Dr. Broadbent is an independent physician and has never been an employee of Utah Valley Hospital. When the hospital learned of this lawsuit, Dr. Broadbent’s privileges to deliver babies or provide any other services at the hospital were immediately suspended. We take these allegations very seriously and are committed to ensure the safety of our patients,” Madigan said.

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It was not until December 2021, when one of Broadbent’s victims related her experience on a podcast, that others began to come forward with their own stories. Plaintiffs realized that they were not alone, with many realizing Broadbent’s actions were not medically necessary — they were potentially unlawful. With awareness spreading of the original podcast interview and the lawsuit, numerous other women have since came forward and shared their interactions with Broadbent.

By way of introducing the Jane Doe’s statements, the court document says: “A woman is rarely more vulnerable than when she is laying on an exam table, unclothed, trusting a male gynecologist to provide her with the medical care she needs. Dr. David H. Broadbent took advantage of his position, Plaintiffs’ vulnerability, and that relationship of trust as he sexually battered and abused Plaintiffs and numerous other women over the course of four decades.”

Court documents indicate that, “Broadbent sees many of his patients at his office, which is positioned one block from Brigham Young University freshman dorms and in the middle of numerous apartment complexes in which thousands of young female Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University students live.”

The Daily Herald attempted to reach out to Broadbent at his Provo office Thursday, but the offices were closed. Due to the extremely graphic nature of the accusations, the Daily Herald is not reproducing details from all of the newly added cases.

It appears from the court documents and interviews from the Jane Does that Broadbent had a pattern of abusive, painful and demeaning behavior when giving women exams — specifically first-time pelvic exams, first-time pregnancy exams, pre-marital exams and others common when visiting an OB/GYN.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

In some cases, Broadbent gave exams when they were not needed, including one Jane Doe who said she came into his office to get birth control pills before being given the same treatment alleged by other plaintiffs.

The Jane Does also claim that Broadbent used unreasonable methods for pelvic exams. Some allege Broadbent used his own fingers to check vaginal areas while simultaneously putting other fingers in the women’s rectums.

Plaintiffs also noted that Broadbent, without any prior indication, would run his hands up under their shirt or bra and feel their breasts — an action that does not correlate to a proper breast exam.

Broadbent, they claim, made crude remarks about the woman’s body, how lucky her new husband will be and more all while giving the exam.

Dr. Tiffany Weber, OB/GYN with the University of Utah Hospital, said the most important thing is for the patient and doctor to have open lines of communication and to build a trusting relationship.

“Exams are done only when necessary. There are only a few occasions such as a pap smear or addressing a complaint,” Weber said.

Weber noted that fewer exams are given now than in past years, and only when needed.

“The doctor’s job is to support women in their journey of health,” Weber added. “When women come to see an OB/GYN there has to be trust. Our job is so critical.”

If what these Jane Does allege is true, Weber said it is not only abnormal, it is wildly inappropriate.

On Oct. 7, 2020, Jane Doe H.P., a resident of Utah County, asked to be checked for a sexually transmitted disease. Broadbent joked about how the swab would be painful and that he needed to swab her until he counted to 100. Jane Doe H.P. thought he was joking, but he held the swab in her vagina and moved it around slowly as he counted to 100.

“He then refused to answer any questions and said, ‘we’ll find out in a few days.’ As she walked out, the nurse handed her lubrication and Replens and said nothing. At her May 11, 2021 appointment, Broadbent began doing a vaginal exam and started joking about not being able to find her cervix. Then, laughing, with his fingers still inside her, said, ‘there it is! You’re a girl!,'” according to the court filing.

Most of the newly added Jane Doe’s live in Utah County — and all of them claim to have been traumatized, physically and emotionally hurt, embarrassed and victimized by Broadbent.

In some of the cases, husbands were in the exam room but did not know what was happening to their spouse while on the exam table. Many of these couples didn’t come forward earlier because they were either afraid or felt they may not have understood the process.

In a number of the allegations, Broadbent was in the exam room alone with the patient. When a nurse was in the room the Jane Does said they were generally standing away from the doctor, at the door and not acknowledging what he was doing.

In the case of Jane Doe B.H., who resides in Iron County, the court documents say; “On Dec. 22, 2008, Jane Doe B.H. was ambulanced from Sanpete Valley Hospital to Utah Valley Hospital in preterm labor at 33 weeks gestation. It was Jane Doe B.H.’s first pregnancy, and she arrived completely terrified of what would happen to her unborn baby. She was taken to the hospital’s labor and delivery department where she was having contractions and worried that she would deliver before her husband could make it.”

According to the documents, Broadbent told the nurse, “no food or drink until we can get her contractions under control,” after having the nurse check her cervix for dilation while sitting in guest chair.

“An hour later, Jane Doe B.H.’s husband made it to her room. They had both been through so much that day that she did not want to tell him how creepy her OBGYN was, so she kept the ‘introduction’ she had with him to herself. Later that night, Jane Doe B.H.’s brother-in-law came to the hospital to visit and see if her and her husband needed anything. He sat in one of the visitor’s chairs, and her husband was on the couch, when Broadbent entered the room, barely gave a glance to the fact that she not only had her husband there, but that she had another visitor, and told Jane Doe B.H. that he needed to check her vitals,” reads the court documents.

“Broadbent then walked over to her and, using his stethoscope, listened to her heartbeat. Jane Doe B.H. thought he was done when, without any warning, Broadbent reached his hand completely down the front of her gown, popping open one of the clasps on her hospital gown, and, with his whole hand, groped Jane Doe B.H.’s breast. With his hand still holding her breast, he asked, ‘is it tender?’ Before Jane Doe B.H. could answer, Broadbent reached down and groped her other breast, exposing part of her body which her brother-in-law inadvertently saw. The way he groped her breast was nothing like breast exams Jane Doe B.H. subsequently experienced,” the document continues.

Broadbent continued to be her OB/GYN provider for the next few days. Each time he would enter her room, she would cringe and hope that he would not touch her. Jane Doe B.H. and her husband talked about asking for a new doctor to care for her, but were worried that there would be repercussions that may compromise her or her baby’s care.

While still in the hospital Jane Doe B.H. was able to tell her nurse and the nurse manager on the floor what had happened. The nurse manager said she would escalate the situation. Jane Doe was able to get a new OB/GYN, was later discharged and reached full term before delivering her baby. She never heard from the hospital if the case has been escalated.

Six years later, in the fall of 2014, Jane Doe B.H. was employed by IHC and expecting her third child. Through quarterly meetings, she started getting to know the hospital administrator at Utah Valley Hospital. During one interaction with him and another administrator, Jane Doe B.H. asked if Broadbent still worked at Utah Valley Hospital. The administrator told her that he did, the documents indicate.

“Jane Doe B.H. could not hide her distaste and replied, ‘he probably shouldn’t be.’ The Administrator kind of smiled and said something like, ‘yeah, some people don’t like his personality.’ Jane Doe B.H. replied that that was not the problem and told the Administrator all of the details from her experience with Broadbent. The Administrator seemed extremely uncomfortable and asked if Broadbent was touching her breasts to see if her milk had come in yet. When she said no, the Administrator nodded and asked if she would be comfortable sending an email to him with an account of her experience so he could discuss it with the chief medical officer for the hospital. Jane Doe B.H. agreed and emailed him all the details she discussed with him earlier that day,” the court statement said.

“The next morning, Jane Doe B.H. received a call from the Chief Medical Officer for Utah Valley Hospital (the ‘CMO’) who told her that he reviewed the email she sent the Administrator and that he discussed the case with the medical leads over labor and delivery. The CMO told Jane Doe B.H. that when he brought up her case to the doctors, they told him that they knew exactly which case he was referring to (even six years later), that they were both very familiar with her case. The CMO then went on to tell Jane Doe B.H. that she should know that Broadbent was ‘disciplined’ for what he did to her and that he had to undergo mandatory trainings which, to the best of her knowledge, were described as sensitivity and aggression trainings,” reads the court documents.

While Jane Doe B.H. was somewhat happy to hear that at least something was done, she was still displeased to hear that Broadbent was still seeing patients. At that time, she was also too scared of losing her job to push the case any further.

When the news about Broadbent’s history of abusing his patients came out, Jane Doe B.H. realized the full extent of what happened to her, and that years after her complaint to the administrator and CMO of Utah Valley Hospital, IHC was still working with Broadbent and referring patients to him.

“After that many years, she still feels violated and angry that a person in a position of care saw a terrified woman who was worried about losing her baby and in an extremely vulnerable position as an opportunity to “push the envelope” and see what he could get away with–even being so brazen as to do it in front of two men in the name of ‘caring’ for a patient,” the document concludes.

Because of the number of plaintiffs added to the lawsuit, the cases have been divided into two groups — incidents that have happened in the past four years and incidents prior to four years ago.

According to Sorenson, nurses witnessing Broadbent’s behavior have not been added as defendants in the lawsuit, but will likely be deposed.

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