The Times Weekly, News
DuPage Medical Group, which adopted the name Duly Health and Care in 2021, is under fire for negligence in a sexual abuse lawsuit. Chicago-based law firm Hurley McKenna & Mertz named Illinois’ largest independent multispecialty physician group as a defendant in an Amended Complaint, filed August 15, 2022, by a female patient suing obstetrician-gynecologist Vernon Cannon, M.D. of Arlington Heights, Illinois, for sexual battery. On August 4, 2022, the trial court judge denied DuPage Medical Group’s efforts to dismiss the case and the case will move forward.
The adult female, known to the court as Jane Doe, had been a long-standing patient of Cannon, until a May 25, 2018, colposcopy – an outpatient gynecological medical diagnostic procedure – performed at a DuPage Medical Group facility. The suit alleges that during the appointment Cannon initiated unwelcomed physical and sexual contact without the consent of Jane Doe.
After DuPage Medical Group tried to dismiss the lawsuit, Doe pointed out that DuPage Medical Group’s own records documented an early 2018 patient complaint that Cannon “was under the influence of alcohol. He was slurring his words and had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his breath.” Subsequent 2019 records showed a report stating that Cannon “seemed to be slurring when talking to me.”
A subsequent investigation by Hurley McKenna & Mertz revealed a March 31, 2016, arrest of Cannon, in which Warrenville Police charged him with domestic battery involving alcohol.
“We have grave concerns that a physician with domestic battery charges and reports by patients of his intoxication on the job was able to continue his practice at DuPage Medical Group without discipline or investigation,” explained Christopher Hurley, partner at Hurley McKenna & Mertz. “We intend to find out why DuPage Medical Group allowed this to occur.”
The lawsuit is seeking damages for the trauma suffered by Doe at the hands of Cannon and the negligence of DuPage Medical Group.
With more than 1000 physicians and 150 Chicagoland locations, DuPage Medical Group (now known as Duly Health and Care) is a sophisticated medical practice, employing doctors in a variety of medical specialties. According to the lawsuit, DuPage Medical Group owed Doe, as its patient, “a duty to implement policies and procedures, screen physicians, and supervise physicians so as to protect patients from sexual abuse.”
The lawsuit states that DuPage Medical Group negligently retained Cannon when it knew or should have known that he had been credibly accused of being under the influence of alcohol while examining female patients. The medical practice failed to investigate and supervise Cannon, during his interactions with patients, something it should have done in light of complaints that he was seeing patients under the influence of alcohol.
