The legal problems of pediatrician Melvin Levine are getting more and more complicated as even more patients come forward with claims of sexual abuse. Levine, who is now 70 years old and is a published author and famed children’s doctor, has faced a number of medical malpractice lawsuits from men and boys who say that they were inappropriately touched during exams over the last five decades. As man as 50 people have come forward with stories of abuse.
Last March, Levine agree to stop practicing medicine forever in the North Carolina, where he now resides, and signed an official agreement with the North Carolina Medical Board saying as much. Levine will not only be barred from examining patients in North Carolina, but also anywhere in the world.
More recently, a new abuse victim came forward with a story of sexual abuse at Children’s Hospital dating back to 1967. Now the courts are trying to decide if the medical negligence claim is from 1967, when laws were significantly different, or if it is from 2006, the year that the victim remembered and reported the abuse. If the abuse does indeed date back to 43 years ago, Children’s Hospital would not be named in the case since it would be immune as a charitable institution.
Levine faced a medical malpractice lawsuit in 2008 involving seven men who said that they were abused as boys by the doctor. During and after the case, dozens more came forward with similar stories of abuse.