PROTECTING A PREDATOR

HOW COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IGNORED WOMEN, UNDERMINED PROSECUTORS, AND ALLOWED ONE OF ITS OB/GYNS TO ABUSE HUNDREDS OF PATIENTS.

- Bianca Fortis and Laura Beil

Laurie Kanyok was 38, a professional dancer on the cusp of retirement, when she learned she was pregnant. She had already suffered one miscarriage and had recently undergone a spinal treatment that she feared would increase the risk of birth defects. Kanyok booked an appointment with an obstetrician, Dr. Robert Hadden of Columbia University. She felt grateful to be in the care of someone who had spent his entire career at such a distinguished institution.

At first, Kanyok liked Hadden, who had a soft-spoken, fatherly way. With his prim, grayish beard and wire-rimmed glasses, he reminded her of a "skinny Santa Claus," as she later put it. But there was one time when, heels in the stirrups, she thought she felt a flicker of something moist on her vagina. During another appointment, Hadden palpated Kanyok's cervix with such force that his fingers lifted her from the exam table. She heard him moan.

Kanyok dismissed Hadden's strange behavior, focusing on her baby. "You put yourself aside at that point, right?" she says. "You want to see a heartbeat. You want to know that the umbilical cord isn't wrapped around the neck. And then you want to know that you're going to get to the finish line, deliver, and go home. That's it."

Six weeks after giving birth to a daughter, on a Friday in late June 2012, Kanyok returned to Columbia's suite of offices on East 60th Street for a checkup. She looked idly at her phone as Hadden examined her. He assured her that all looked good, and the nurse chaperoning the exam left the room. Hadden started to follow her out. Then he paused, turned, and told Kanyok that he'd forgotten to check her stitches. He instructed her to lie down again.