Chicago-area gynecologist sentenced for sexually abusing patients during exams

A former Chicago-area gynecologist was sentenced this week after confessing to the sexual abuse of two of his former patients.

Dr. Fabio Ortega, 75, a former NorthShore University HealthSystem obstetrician/gynecologist, was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after entering a guilty plea for two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Ortega’s plea related to incidents in 2016 and 2017, involving a 37-year-old patient at a NorthShore office in Skokie and a 40-year-old patient at the doctor’s office in Lincolnwood, according to the paper. At those exams, both women say the creepy doc asked them inappropriate questions and subsequently touched them inappropriately.

“I’m a shell of my former self,” said one of the women, who read a statement in court Tuesday ahead of Ortega’s sentencing, according to the Tribune. “I’m not living. I’m barely surviving day to day. Not only did my life change the moment you touched me, but so did the lives of my husband and my children.”

A crying Ortega then said that, “As a physician, I have never intended to hurt anyone. Never, never.”

The former doctor, whose medical license was suspended in 2018 for sexual misconduct, said that he did “sincerely apologize to the women who felt that I acted inappropriately,” according to the Tribune.

Despite his tearful apology, Ortega still faces nine since-consolidated civil lawsuits in Cook County Circuit Court, attorney Tamara Holder, representing the other women leveling allegations, told the Tribune.

Both NorthShore and Swedish Covenant Hospital are identified as defendants in several of the suits, which claim the former neglected to warn patients about allegations against the doc and allowed him to retire rather than firing him, according to the paper.

Ortega’s sentence includes credit for 170 days that have already been spent under electronic monitoring, the Tribune reports. If he exhibits good behavior behind bars, he could be released early.

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