USC And The Anatomy of a "Creepy" Doctor Cover-up. The Beat Goes on

Still another investigation - this one by the Los Angeles Times - underscores that otherwise respected universities routinely compound the societal damage inflicted by evil physicians. The administrators - those people charged with the responsibility of ethical, higher education management - simply ignore the mandatory federal reporting laws and wink at each other in their sequestered, venerable corridors. And then they go right on hiding the sins and shuffling the sinners of their own medical staff.

Because who needs to know, really?

Thanks to the recent Los Angeles Times investigation, we now know that the University of Southern California administrators allowed one of their doctors to continue working at the student health clinic, long after they knew that he was routinely mistreating female students.

You may want to go back and read the last sentence again.

In fact, until USC realized they could no longer keep the repeated disgusting misbehavior of their only full-time gynecologist secret, they kept Doctor George Tyndall on staff for 30 years. But what did they do - you might ask - when their own medical team members reported that Tyndall's behavior was, at best "creepy" and at worst criminal?

They ignored their own medical staff. Why? Simple. Doctors wear white lab coats and walk on hydrogen and oxygen. They are not subject to the rules of normal people.

That, and of course the fact that USC has an enormous reputation to defend at all costs. So secrecy outranks transparency, as it so often does in the Twilight Zone of medicine.

And even after their own quiet investigation revealed the truth, USC did not fire him. Instead, they did what hospitals traditionally do when they uncover nasty doctors they can no longer protect: they "encouraged" him to resign.

At least 20 USC patients and staff members reported that the freaky doctor Tyndall liked to take pictures of female students’ genitals; that he probed their bodies inappropriately; that he had the young women totally undress for no medical reason; that he liked to question them about their sex life. And you can bet there was far more, and far worse.

And by all indications, Tyndall favored Asian women, likely because they tended to accept authority and not challenge his dispicable behavior.

Said one staff member, “He would tell young women their hymens are intact. ‘Your boyfriend will love it.’”

At least five different people reported that Tyndall would bring up sex as he probed their vaginas with his fingers.

Reluctantly, USC determined that Tyndall was too freaky to continue, and suggested he retire, which he did, in summer of 2017.

But did they report Tyndall to the California State Medical Board as required by law?

Not until the Times told them they were about to publish its investigation.

In an attempt to exonerate their own behavior, USC president C. L. Max Nikias finally said this. “We expect much of people entrusted with the wellbeing of our students,While we have no evidence of criminal conduct, we have no doubt that Doctor Tyndall’s behavior was completely unacceptable. It was a clear violation of our Principles of Community, and a shameful betrayal of our values.”

Yes, indeed. But was the crappy behavior by the doctor worse than the refusal to report him to the medical board?

You tell us where the "clear violation" happened.

We won't hold our breath.