SAN DIEGO — Dozens of women are suing Sharp Grossmont Hospital claiming they were filmed without their knowledge while receiving medical care.
The lawsuit alleges that cameras were set up in several operating rooms and recorded patients having surgery and giving birth at the hospital’s women’s health center.
Allison Goddard, who is the San Diego attorney who is representing some of the women, told News 8 that as many as 1,800 women may have been filmed but only 81 have so far signed on to the suit.
“It’s like their foundation has been rocked. Universal shock, disbelief – no understanding of how anyone could think this was appropriate,” said Goddard.
The lawsuit claims that roughly 1,800 women were secretly video recorded at Sharp Grossmont Hospital over an 11-month period beginning in the summer of 2012.
Goddard said some of the women were only partially clothed while being taped – sometimes unconscious during an operation or procedure from epidural to c-sections and other surgeries.
“These were tubal ligation. All of those moments were captured,” she said.
On HLN earlier, one of the victims signed on to the suit. Carla Jones said her c-section at Sharp was videotaped without her knowledge.
Sharp Health Care claims that those video cameras had been set up in three operating rooms in the Women’s Health Center as part of an investigation into hospital drugs like propofol that had gone missing.
“It is hard for them to say they did this because of propofol when there were only negligible amounts of propofol missing,” said Goddard.
It is unclear how those videos were then stored, viewed and potentially shared – sometimes on computers without password protection.
“They took what was supposed to be a private moment and made it into something they now have to be afraid may be disseminated,” said Goddard.
At this point it has not been determined whether any of those videos have been disseminated on the internet or in any other way.
In a statement to News 8, Sharp Health Care acknowledged the cameras were set up as part of an investigation into medication theft.
Sharp Health Care Drug Diversion Statement to News 8
"Between July 2012 and June 2013, a computer monitor with a motion-activated camera was installed in each of Sharp Grossmont Hospital’s three Women’s Center operating rooms, where it was previously detected that powerful drugs were missing from the anesthesia carts. The three cameras were installed and operated to insure patient safety by identifying the person or persons responsible for the removal of the drugs. Although the cameras were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts removing drugs, others, including patients and medical personnel in the operating rooms, were at times visible to the cameras and recorded. An initial lawsuit alleging privacy violations and other claims stemming from the video recording was filed against Sharp HealthCare and Sharp Grossmont Hospital in 2016. The case remains active and Sharp is unable to comment further about this matter. Sharp HealthCare and Sharp Grossmont Hospital continue to take extensive measures to protect the privacy of our patients. The surveillance methods in the 2012-13 investigation were used for this particular case only and have not been used again. We sincerely regret that our efforts to ensure medication security may have caused any distress to those we serve."