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A surgeon at MaineGeneral Medical Center crawled on the floor of the Augusta hospital until his face was inches from a nurse’s groin and described how long he could hold his breath in an act of sexual innuendo that upset people who witnessed it, according to testimony from former hospital staff on Tuesday to the Maine board that oversees doctors.
The allegation is the latest to emerge in a case against surgeon Dr. Ian Reight, who is the subject of an ongoing disciplinary hearing before the Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine. The inquiry has centered on complaints that he acted unprofessionally in the workplace for years, including by allegedly bullying staff and sexually harassing women.
Reight has said he never sexually harassed anyone. Despite the new allegation discussed on Tuesday, his boss defended him in testimony, saying Reight became a “lightning rod” during a time when the general surgery team was in upheaval and that no allegations resulted in harm to patients.
“His clinical work, his qualifications, his support of his team are all exemplary,” said Dr. Steven Diaz, chief medical officer for the hospital system MaineGeneral Health. “He’s a high contributor to the general surgeon team.”
Reight was the subject of an investigation by the Bangor Daily News in 2022 that found he rose to a leadership position — eventually becoming president of medical staff, which earned him a spot on the board of the central Maine hospital system — despite at least five women submitting complaints about him to hospital officials.
The hospital argued in public records filed with the Maine Human Rights Commission that it believed the surgeon’s medical team leader, Dr. Carlo Gammaitoni, didn’t do enough to swiftly address personnel problems. As a result it demoted Gammaitoni. It disagreed with descriptions of certain behavior as sex discrimination or harassment, saying the examples simply showed “a department plagued by poor communication and devoid of leadership.”
Now the oversight board, which is primarily made up of doctors, will ultimately decide if there is enough evidence to show that Reight violated any laws or rules and, if so, what sanctions to impose. It has held its administrative proceedings on individual days since July and will continue them at a later date. So far the board has dismissed six counts of what began as 15 counts against Reight.
But the allegation about the doctor crawling up to the nurse was only recently added to the counts against him. Tara Karczewski-Mitchell, a former social worker for MaineGeneral, decided to report to the board what she witnessed after reading a news story about the hearing this summer. She told the board on Tuesday that she believed more of Reight’s inappropriate behavior should be brought to light.
She recalled that she was standing in a doorframe near the nurse’s station in the hospital in 2016 when she saw Reight crawl on the floor until he was in front of the crotch of the charge nurse, who had also been a patient of his, she said. She said the woman looked uncomfortable and was trying to move away from him.
In addition to hearing him talk about how long he could hold his breath, Karczewski-Mitchell testified that Reight said he wished he had taken a picture of the woman — which she understood to be a reference to a picture of the woman’s breasts before he performed surgery on her.
The social worker reported what she had witnessed and heard, and later spoke to Dr. Andrew Dionne, the chief medical officer for the hospital, who said he would address the situation, she said. She checked in with both the charge nurse and a young, female administrative assistant who also witnessed what happened, to see if they were OK. That administrative assistant also filed a complaint.
“In the moment, it was shocking. It was unsettling. It was disturbing. And I was concerned about my coworkers,” Karczewski-Mitchell said.
The former charge nurse, who was responsible for overseeing other nurses, also testified on Tuesday. She said she remembered feeling embarrassed. She did not report what had happened because she was already dealing with the emotional toll of battling breast cancer and wanted to distance herself from the incident, she said.
Reight later called the charge nurse at work and asked her twice if they were on a recorded line, she said. He then asked if she had reported him. She told him that, whether she did or not, he shouldn’t be calling her. She tried to avoid him from then on, she said, and selected a different surgeon to perform her third surgery.
No one from human resources or management at MaineGeneral contacted the nurse to ask her any questions about the incident, she said.
The matter reached a resolution when Dionne, the supervisor, required Reight to review the harassment policy and undergo annual training on sexual harassment, according to an email he sent to Diaz. Dionne found that Reight did not try to deny the report, and he concluded that Reight had violated the hospital’s antiharassment policy.
“They’re recommending no further reprimand or punishment, and he is fully aware of the consequences of any future transgressions, including termination, for this type of behavior,” summarized Assistant Attorney General Lisa Wilson, who is arguing the state’s case against Reight.
When she asked Diaz whether the hospital followed its progressive discipline policy, he replied that not every future complaint about Reight was substantiated.
In one instance, a female doctor complained about male surgeons meeting in the locker room, but they were just talking, not holding actual meetings, Diaz said. In response to another complaint that Reight did not attend any meetings at the wound clinic, he said Reight was over-extended, and his lack of attendance didn’t affect patient care. Former staff who complained to the licensing board had their own professional problems, he said.
When concerns did reach supervisors, even if they weren’t substantiated, the hospital counseled Reight, Diaz said. Reight was often apologetic, asking how he could do better, Diaz said, and he grew professionally over time. He asked for a mentor. The hospital also brought in consultants to try to help the surgery team overcome their conflicts.
In the beginning, “I think Dr. Reight felt that the group around him was the same as the group he would have in college or in high school,” Diaz said. Through coaching and mentoring, Reight learned over the last few years that “being familiar with people, trying to break down barriers by being light, all those things that work when you’re younger, do not work in a professional place because you have a different role.”
If he had known how bad the team dynamics would get, Diaz said he “would have dismantled the group and put a coach in sooner.”
Due to all of the public scrutiny, which is “a very hard thing to come back from,” Reight is in the process of winding down his practice and will be leaving MaineGeneral at the end of January, Diaz said.
The licensing board dismissed four counts of misconduct in August that had centered on Reight’s lack of patient care and failing to evaluate patients when needed.
At the last hearing date, in September, the board voted, 5-2, that Reight had not violated a standard of professional care by berating or intimidating staff working at MaineGeneral’s wound healing and hyperbaric oxygen therapy clinic in a way that interfered with patient care, according to meeting minutes.
The board also voted, 6-1, at the last meeting that Reight did not engage in fraud, deceit or misrepresentation by failing to disclose illicit marijuana use on his application to renew his medical license.
Erin Rhoda is the editor of Maine Focus. She may be reached at [email protected].
