All four of Hawai‘i's federal delegates are urging the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate a U.S. Army doctor accused of exploiting potentially thousands of patients.
In November, obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) Major Blaine D. McGraw was named in a lawsuit filed in a Texas district court by a former patient — unnamed in the suit — who accused him of unknowingly recording her during a medical examination at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Tex.
According to the lawsuit, the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division had found in October a series of photographs on McGraw’s phone depicting multiple female patients during their examinations, with McGraw having seemingly recorded his examinations surreptitiously.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleged that sexual misconduct allegations had followed McGraw for years before he began working at Fort Hood: at Tripler Army Medical Center, where he worked between 2019 and 2023.
With the Army reaching out to McGraw’s former patients, Texas outlets report that more than 100 plaintiffs have joined the case against McGraw, including multiple Tripler patients.
The lawsuit claims that at least one female patient at Tripler had filed a complaint against McGraw, claiming that he had recorded a pelvic examination without her consent. However, the lawsuit goes on to claim that “rather than investigate or remove him from patient care, McGraw’s chain of command dismissed the complaint, laughed it off and allowed him to continue practicing medicine.”
Other accusations within the lawsuit allege that McGraw had repeatedly made inappropriate, sexual comments to his female patients, and one point heavily implied he had unnecessarily undressed a patient while she was sedated.
On Tuesday, all of Hawai‘i's federal lawmakers — Reps. Jill Tokuda and Ed Case, and Senators Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz — published a letter to the Department of Defense calling for a full investigation into McGraw’s actions and how he was allowed to persist for so long.
“The damage done by Major McGraw’s alleged actions is irreversible,” the letter read in part. “The Department owes these victims accountability for its failure to stop this misconduct, including a comprehensive investigation and, where supported by the evidence, prosecution of Major McGraw under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to the fullest extent allowed.”
The letter calls for a joint briefing between the DoD, Department of the Army and the Defense Health Agency in six months to report on the “systemic failures that contributed to the alleged conduct.”
Meanwhile, the suit itself continues apace, with further hearings scheduled for later this month.
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