A Charleston gastroenterologist being investigated on claims he sexually assaulted patients while they were under anesthesia for colonoscopy procedures was accused in a lawsuit filed last week of rupturing a woman's spleen during a colonoscopy procedure in February 2015.
Dr. Steven Matulis "suffered from impaired professional judgment" at the time he performed a colonoscopy on Teresa Foster, according to the complaint filed Monday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
Gary Foster filed the lawsuit as administrator of the estate of his late wife. The complaint does not contain a wrongful death claim. Teresa Foster died about nine months after the colonoscopy procedure. Foster is represented by Charleston lawyer Michael Del Giudice.
Matulis "was chronically impaired due to a psychiatric condition causing him to be obsessed and incline to fondle female genitalia while performing colonoscopies on said females," the lawyer wrote in the complaint.
Charleston Area Medical Center and Charleston Gastroenterologist Associates, which are both also being sued by Foster, allegedly knew Matulis was professionally impaired but allowed him to perform the colonoscopy procedures anyway.
The hospital and medical center didn't prevent Matulis from conducting the procedures because he was making them large sums of money, the lawsuit alleges. Matulis would allegedly perform colonoscopy procedures "at an extremely rapid rate, thus encouraging errors and mistakes," the complaint states,
"The egregious conduct by Defendant Matulis compounded with the greedy conduct of the Defendants [CAMC] and [the gastroenterologist center], endangered the safety of all of Defendant Matulis' female patients, including Ms. Foster," Del Giudice wrote.
CAMC spokesman Dale Witte did not respond to a message Saturday.
A lawsuit filed in November asks a judge to create a class of plaintiffs made up of all of Matulis' female patients during the past six years. They may be fearing they have been the victim of an assault, that lawsuit filed by lawyers with the Calwell Practice states.
That complaint also raises a claim about the reliability of the procedures.
Several other cases have been filed against the doctor, as well as CAMC.
The first lawsuit against Matulis containing assault allegations by a former patient was filed at the beginning of 2016 by Charleston lawyer Ben Salango. It stated that Charleston police told at least two women, about a week after they underwent a procedure, that they had been the victims of sexual assault by Matulis.
Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia is investigating the possibility of criminal charges against Matulis. Sorsaia was appointed special prosecutor when Kanawha Prosecuting Attorney Charles Miller recused himself because two assistants in his office have lawyer spouses that had sued or were planning to sue Matulis on the assault allegations.
Neither Matulis nor his lawyer, Ben Bailey, could be reached Friday. They have not commented publicly on the allegations.
In March, Charleston Area Medical Center revoked Matulis' privileges to practice medicine at the hospital. In May, Matulis stopped his medical practice and voluntarily switched his license to practice medicine to inactive.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.