Robert Hadden was a "predator in a white coat". Now 226 victims have spoken.

Content warning: This story mentions sexual assault and may be distressing for some readers.

Laurie Kanyok was pregnant in 2011 when she was sexually abused at the hands of her gynaecologist.

Laurie, a former Broadway dancer, was seeing gynaecologist Robert Hadden, and didn't know what to expect or what was appropriate for a gynaecologist to perform on a pregnant woman. On one occasion, under the guise of checking the dilation of her cervix, Hadden subjected her to an internal exam so forceful that he lifted her off the exam chair while she gripped the chair arms. The event caused her to bleed afterwards.

The abuse progressed.

"I said, 'you didn't just do a full exam?'' and he said, 'no, just lay back down let me just check one more time'. So, I lay back down and put my feet in the stirrups, and he pulls the sheet taut and all of a sudden, his head ducked down, and he licked my vagina and I jumped off the table and he was white as a ghost'. I tried to leave. I got dressed and walked out," Laurie recounted in a profile interview.

She texted her partner immediately, who told her to call the police which she did. Soon after leaving the gynaecologist office, Laurie received a disturbing voicemail from Hadden. She later played the voicemail to detectives. Upon doing a sexual assault test at hospital, the sample taken from Laurie was a 98 to 99 per cent match for Hadden's saliva.

For Marissa Hoechstetter, she knows Laurie's pain all too well.

From 2009 to 2012, she was a victim of Hadden.

As a patient, Marissa said Hadden "performed overly touchy breast exams, made inappropriate comments about my body, examined me without nurses in the room, and on at least one occasion, licked my vagina."

Adding to the pain was the fact that Marissa's children were delivered by caesarean section - performed by Hadden.

"His hands cut me open, reached inside my body and were the first hands to touch my children," she told the New York Times. "That's an incredible position of privilege that I gave this person. The assaults poisoned the memories of my pregnancy and those early years with my daughters. I felt like a failure as a woman for not turning him in."

In 2015, Marissa reported the assaults.

A few years ago when registering her twin daughters for kindergarten, Marissa needed their birth certificates. When she pulled the papers out she realised that Hadden's name was on them. And that made her feel sick. 

That realisation prompted Marissa to campaign for a New York City law, which went into effect in 2020, allowing parents to remove a doctor's name from their children's birth certificates if the doctor has had his or her medical license revoked for misconduct.

Although it was a step forward in the right direction, criminal proceedings against Hadden have been more complicated. Because it took years before justice was served. 

In 2012, Evelyn Yang was sexually assaulted by Hadden.

Evelyn, who is the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, came forward with her story in 2020, saying she kept her assault hidden from her family for so long, for fear of shame. 

In early 2012, Evelyn was pregnant with her first child and went to see gynecologist Robert Hadden.

Prosecutors described Hadden as a "predator in a white coat," singling out young and unsuspecting victims, including a young girl he had previously delivered at birth.

This week, the two New York hospitals where Hadden practiced agreed to pay more than AUD$260 million to 147 former patients who have accused the former gynaecologist of sexual abuse and misconduct.

Columbia University Irving Medical Centre and New York-Presbyterian announced the agreement, saying in a statement: "We deeply regret the pain that Robert Hadden's patients suffered and hope that these resolutions will provide some measure of support for the women he hurt."

Last year, the two hospitals reached another settlement to establish a $111 million compensation fund with 79 of Hadden's former patients. That means 226 patients of Hadden have been financially compensated, but "dozens" more women have ongoing cases against him. 

Image: AAP.

As their attorney Anthony T. DiPietro told the Washington Post: "Many of those women previously didn't know they were being sexually exploited."

For Laurie Kanyok, the fact it took so long for some morsel of justice to be served is heartbreaking.

As she said to the Daily Mail: "This is a gynaecologist, this is your most vulnerable state as a female. How does an institution allow this? That messes with your psyche.

"There is no dollar amount, there is no time. There is no fix to that," she continued. "I'm tough. I can handle a lot but this trauma is the suit you can't get off. You can never get rid of it. And I was supposed to have won? What did I win? All I could think was I signed this piece of paper and I accepted money, for what?"

Laurie struggles to grapple with the fact of how many women were assaulted after her.

Before she herself was assaulted, a woman in 1993 had written a letter to Columbia University Irving Medical Centre alleging an assault. Columbia had responded by saying "we'll get to the bottom of this" but nothing had eventuated.

And then after Laurie's own assault in 2011 - which she reported on the day it occurred - multiple other women became victims of Hadden.

Hadden is now currently awaiting trial. The separate 2020 federal charges include sexually abusing dozens of young and unsuspecting female patients for over two decades, and six counts of inducing others to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts.

For Marissa Hoechstetter, she has continued to advocate for victim-survivors, saying that by sharing her story she hopes it will help others and prompt her own healing.

"As a patients’ rights advocate, I hear from women across the country nearly every day who've been sexually harassed or abused by their doctors. Many have never reported and don't think they will be believed. I believe them and won't stop fighting for exams free from sex abuse," she wrote. 

"I don't tell my story for pity. I do it because I want to make change."

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

Feature Image: Getty.