UNO News Net: Toronto doctor stripped of licence after panel hears she had sex with cancer patient in his hospital bed

By Jacques GallantLegal Affairs Reporter

Wed., Jan. 23, 2019

The day after she diagnosed a patient with cancer, Dr. Theepa Sundaralingam gave him her personal phone number and Instagram handle.
Over the next few months in 2015, frequent flirtatious texting turned into hugging and kissing and eventually progressed to the Toronto doctor masturbating and having intercourse with her patient in his hospital bed while he was being treated for his illness.

Toronto oncologist Dr. Theepa Sundaralingam leaves a discipline hearing at the College of Physicians and Surgeons on Wednesday. (Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star)

And for all that — which was laid out in documents filed at Sundaralingam’s discipline hearing — the doctor was stripped of her licence Wednesday by a discipline panel at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, having been found guilty of sexually abusing a patient.
“From virtually the beginning of your doctor/patient relationship, you crossed boundaries and ultimately sexually abused an extremely vulnerable patient suffering from a life-threatening illness,” discipline panel chair John Langs told Sundaralingam in an official reprimand, as the doctor stood in the middle of the room facing the panel.
“The committee can only hope that this process prompts you to undergo a long, hard searching self-examination of what lies behind your abusive and abhorrent behaviour.”

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The Star is not identifying the name of the hospital where Sundaralingam worked, nor a second where the patient received treatment because both are covered by a publication ban.
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Sundaralingam, a 37-year-old oncologist, pleaded no contest, meaning she was not admitting guilt but consented to the panel accepting the allegations as fact, which were laid out in a statement of uncontested facts filed at the hearing.
The patient, referred to as Patient A due to a publication ban, said in a victim impact statement that he is fighting through this “traumatic experience” just as he fought through cancer.

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“It’s difficult for me to talk to anybody about it because the reality is that I’m a male ... so for me to say, ‘Hey, I dated my oncologist,’ it wouldn’t be a surprise for someone to say ‘Cool.’ But that’s not cool,” the patient said in his statement, which was read by college prosecutor Amy Block.
“That’s not the case because I feel abused, and it’s very difficult as a male to come out and say that about a female. It’s usually the other way around.”
During her medical appointments with Patient A, Sundaralingam behaved “in a physical, flirty and sexual manner,” according to the statement of uncontested facts.
She visited Patient A a number of times at his home, where he lived with his family, and would spend hours with him in his bedroom engaging in sexual activities. Phone sex was also a regular activity, according to the statement.
Over text, they discussed topics including their favourite pornography.
“Have u ever been to a porn and cheese party?” she asked the patient in a text filed at the hearing. “Oh wait, I don’t think that’s a normal activity. My bad.”
She explained to her patient that everyone has to bring a cheese and a porn clip that are somehow related, and everyone at the party watches together.
“Oh -and there was a prize for the person who had the best cheese and porn combination. I may have been to one.”
Sundaralingam would also visit him while he was an in-patient at a different hospital receiving cancer treatment, where the patient’s whole family got to know her. Once she arrived at the hospital after she had been drinking, and the two engaged in “mutual sexual touching,” according to the statement. On another occasion, her attempt at masturbating the patient in his hospital bed was interrupted when a friend walked in.
Toward the end of the patient’s stay in hospital, Sundaralingam slept overnight. The two had intercourse twice while he was an in-patient, the discipline panel was told.
“Dr. Sundaralingam repeatedly asked Patient A to delete their texts and keep their relationship a secret, as she was concerned the college would become aware of their sexual and inappropriate relationship,” according to the statement of uncontested facts.
She also instructed him to scratch her name out of the visitor’s log at the hospital where he was an in-patient so there would be no evidence she was ever there. He did as he was told.
The sexual relationship came to an end later in 2015 when, after having sex with Patient A at his home, she told him she was in love with a colleague with whom she was having an affair. By the end of the year, she was refusing to see him, but did end up treating him one last time the following year for an infection.
“You were responsible for your patient’s health, care and support, but instead you took advantage for your own personal satisfaction,” the discipline panel told Sundaralingam in its reprimand.
“You then withdrew that support for your own personal preference at a time when your patient was at his lowest point. You have disgraced yourself and the profession.”
A doctor found guilty of having sex with a patient automatically loses their licence under Ontario law. Sundaralingam must also post credit for $16,000 to cover patient therapy costs, and pay an additional $6,000 to cover the costs of Wednesday’s discipline hearing.
Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering legal affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant