Kaiser Foundation Hospitals & The Permanente Medical Group Civil Complaint

On Friday, February 14, 2025, the Zinn Law Firm filed a civil complaint against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Permanente Medical Group in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of a Kaiser patient and Bay Area resident, Michael Bean. The lawsuit details a shocking and horrible incident of sexual abuse committed by a male Kaiser medical assistant against Mr. Bean that occurred when he was lying awake and still during a facial melanoma removal Surgery.

Despite Mr. Bean submitting a full report of the incident to Kaiser, and with our office also trying to inquire about it when Mr. Bean did not receive any response, to date Kaiser has failed to inform Mr. Bean or us that any action has been taken to discipline or terminate the employee who committed the assault. In fact, Kaiser will not even assure Mr. Bean or his attorneys that the medical assistant who committed the abuse may not be part of any future medical procedures at Kaiser he may still require.

In addition to Mr. Bean’s horrible experience, our office has been contacted by another victim of a separate incident of sexual abuse at the hands of a Kaiser physician. That victim’s complaints and requests for information about the status of the abuser have also been substantially ignored. This reveals a disturbing pattern at Kaiser for how these incidents are allowed to occur, and how they respond to patient victims when they do occur.

Kaiser requires all its patients to sign private arbitration agreements, which prevent its patients from trying their cases in a public proceeding and in front of a jury. Kaiser also requires victims who receive settlements for these claims to sign confidentiality agreements to keep their claims and any settlement private, and out of the public eye. There is therefore no way to know how many other Kaiser patients may have brought valid claims for sexual abuse against Kaiser that have been resolved privately and without the public’s knowledge.

A copy of the Complaint that will be filed today in Mr. Bean’s case is attached. Mr. Bean and his attorney, Carter Zinn, are available today, and in the coming days as needed, for interview and comment. They can be reached at carter@zinn-law.com and 415 292-4100, opt. 7.

It must stop here.

FURTHER FACTUAL DETAILS OF THE ABUSE AND TODAY’S LAWSUIT

Over recent years, Bay Area resident Michael Bean had been diagnosed with cancerous melanoma growths on his face. In early 2024 he was told that there was one that required surgical removal. On February 14, 2024, he was sent to the MOHS clinic at Kaiser San Rafael Medical Center to have the growth surgically removed. The surgery was performed by a female physician, who was assisted by a male medical assistant. Before the surgery began, the Kaiser surgeon told Mr. Bean that the procedure had to be performed with him awake, and with local anesthetic, as it was very important he not move at all during the procedure. Then, right before the surgery started, as the male medical assistant was passing sharp tools to the surgeon, he looked at Mr. Bean in the eye and told him: “don’t worry, I won’t poke your eye out.” Mr. Bean did not know what to make of this comment at the time.

Once the surgeon started working with the sharp surgical scalpel on Mr. Bean’s face, the male medical assistant started to rhythmically push something hard into Mr. Bean’s right upper arm. Mr. Bean did not know what it was at first. But soon, to his utter shock and dismay, he realized it was the assistant’s fully erect penis. As the surgery went on for somewhere between 30-45 minutes, the medical assistant continued to rhythmically push his erection into Mr. Bean’s arm – on and off– the entire time the surgery was occurring. Mr. Bean was panicked, confused, and disgusted. He had never had anything like this happen before, and he did not know what to do. Like many victims of sexual abuse in the moment it occurred, he felt paralyzed. He was worried if he said anything or tried to push the assistant away that the knife would slip and cut his face. So he laid there, in panic and shock, for the procedure to end.

When it was over the medical assistant non-clamantly walked Mr. Bean into the waiting room. An hour later, the assistant came back, told him the surgery was successful and he could leave, as if nothing had happened at all.

In the following days, Mr. Bean responded to an e-mail he received from Kaiser asking him about the surgery and told Kaiser about the sexual abuse incident that had occurred. Over the several months that followed, he told several of his Kaiser physicians about the event as well. His physicians expressed horror and told Mr. Bean they would report the incident as well. Mr. Bean was contacted by several Kaiser administrative personnel and interviewed about the incident. He was promised they would tell him of the results, but they stopped returning his calls and messages. To this day, Mr. Bean has no idea whether the Kaiser medical assistant has admitted to committing the abuse, whether he still works at Kaiser, or whether, if Mr. Bean is required to go to the San Rafael Kaiser clinic to have another growth removed, if his assailant may again be in the room with him while he is under the scalpel.

After months of not getting any response about this from Kaiser on this own, suffering emotionally and feeling responsible for allowing the abuse to occur, Mr. Bean then retained our office to protect his rights and see if we could find answers to these questions. However, when we contacted Kaiser’s counsel and asked on repeated occasions whether the assistant was still with Kaiser or could Mr. Bean at least be assured he would not be present at any future surgeries he might require, Kaiser’s attorneys also declined to answer any of these questions. Instead, they bizarrely said these questions involved “decisions about medical care that Mr. Bean should directly address with his physicians.”

In addition to Mr. Bean’s experience, this office was also contacted by another individual who also was the victim of an alleged Kaiser sexual assault, this time by a Kaiser physician. As was the case with Mr. Bean, the victim immediately reported the doctor’s conduct to Kaiser in detail. The victim was initially advised that the matter would be taken seriously, that there would be a thorough investigation, and that Kaiser officials would get back to the victim with further information. Unfortunately, after several months Kaiser refused to tell that patient if the physician who committed the alleged assault was still employed and seeing Kaiser patients.

Because our office is now aware of multiple instances of Kaiser failing to respond to legitimate patient complaints about sexual assault by Kaiser medical providers, there seems to be a systemic failure on Kaiser’s part to adequately screen potential employees to root out potential abusers or to train their supervisors to look out for signs of potential abusers. Equally concerning, these incidents seem to expose a serious problem with how Kaiser communicates and responds to patients who, in good faith, report alleged sexual abuse at the hands of Kaiser providers. These patients are essentially ignored and do not even know if they will be confronted with their abuser again if they return to the Kaiser facility. Kaiser can and must do better.

The only way to stop abuse is to stand in the light of day and call it out when it occurs. Mr. Bean is bravely doing that today. Kaiser needs to get the clear message that abuse of patients cannot be tolerated, and when it occurs, patients deserve to learn of the outcomes of any investigation of their claims.

If you or anyone you know has been the victim of sexual abuse, you do not need to suffer alone. Help is available. Please reach out to the trained professional counselors at the National Sexual Abuse Hotline: 800.656.4673.