'Progressive' doctor performed disturbing surgeries on her sedated female patients
A Chicago doctor who put dozens of women through needless cancer surgeries so she could fund her glamorous lifestyle has been jailed.
Mona Ghosh, 52, wrongly told dozens of healthy women who had been screened for cervical cancer that their results were abnormal.
She then gave them unnecessary biopsies and, while they were sedated, the OB-GYN carried out other needless treatments without their consent.
Prosecutors told DailyMail.com that in some cases the pain from these unnecessary surgeries was so severe that patients eventually needed hysterectomies, or the removal of their uteruses.
Ghosh ran the Progressive Women's Healthcare clinic in Hoffman Estates, outside Chicago, where she regularly carried out screenings for cervical cancer.
Listings online show she has a $1.4million four-bedroom four-bathroom home, while in pictures on social media she is shown globe-trotting with vacations to sunny beachside resorts and Rome, Italy.
She is also listed online as the former owner of a property in Peekskill, New York, and an apartment in Chicago.
Nearly 100 women — mostly women of color — have come forward to say they were harmed by her clinic, and 17 spoke at her trial. Prosecutors fear, however, that there are others that are still yet to come forward.
Yesterday, Ghosh was sentenced to ten years in a federal prison and ordered to pay back more than $1.5million after pleading guilty to two counts of health care fraud. She is facing another lawsuit from her patients.
At her sentencing, Federal Judge Franklin Valderrama said: 'You irrevocably harmed women who put their trust in you. You used your patients to bankroll your luxurious lifestyle.'
For some of her patients, she gave them unnecessary endometrial ablations — where a surgeon burns the lining of the uterus.
This is normally done to treat heavy bleeding, but it can also rupture the lining of the uterus — making it difficult for a woman to get pregnant.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Adam Snyder — an attorney for the victims — said it could also be used to make it difficult to determine whether a doctor had correctly diagnosed a patient with cancer.
He added: 'Some of the patients were left in severe pain after the ablations, and had to have their uterus taken out, which is a terrible thing — especially in your 30s and 40s when many women say they would like to have a child.'
Other treatments she carried out unnecessarily include ultrasounds, vaccinations, laboratory blood tests and tests for sexually transmitted diseases.
Ex-patient Angela told local broadcaster ABC7: 'I'm glad she's going to prison for what she did, because she deserves to go to prison.'
Ex-patient Katie Hart added: 'I wasn't done having kids, and she took that from me. Not just me, but everyone, she took that right away from.'
And Christie added: 'At least she will be in prison, and I will be living free.
'She can no longer harm anybody, and that's the main thing, to do no more harm to any more of these women.'
Ghosh was also accused of filing insurance claims for doctors visits that never happened, and of creating false medical records to back up her claims.
She pleaded guilty in court to two counts of health care fraud last year, and in her sentencing was told she must pay $1.5million back to insurance companies.
She now faces another lawsuit from her former patients.
The money must be paid back to taxpayer-funded Medicaid, TRICARE — a health insurance program for veterans — and some private insurers.
Ghosh has also been stripped of her medical license.
Ghosh's actions were revealed in a court case brought in March 2023 by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
She was initially charged with 13 counts of health care fraud, with each carrying a maximum ten-year sentence. Prosecutors also said she had wrongly claimed up to $2.4million.
Last year, she pleaded guilty to two of the charges.
US attorney Andrew Boutros said: 'When physicians submit fraudulent claims to federal health care programs, they divert taxpayer-funded resources away from those who truly need them.
'Ghosh's fraud scheme was particularly egregious because she endangered the health of her patients by performing unnecessary medical procedures, including procedures that severely limited some patients' ability to have children in the future.'
He added: 'We applaud the victims' strength to come forward and confront this defendant.
'Our Office will fight tirelessly for victims and work diligently with our law enforcement partners to safeguard taxpayer funds and hold accountable those who steal from the American public.'
Women in the US are asked to get screenings for cervical cancer, which is the fourth most common cancer in American women with 10,800 cases diagnosed each year. About 4,000 women die from the disease annually.
Women aged 21 to 29 years are asked to get the pap test for cervical cancer once every three years, while those aged 30 to 65 years are asked to continue this regimen or get tested for HPV once every five years.
Endometrial ablation is used to stem serious bleeding, and involves burning the lining of the uterus.
Doctors say it should not be performed on women who intend to get pregnant in the future because it disrupts the uterus lining.
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