A $20 million class-action lawsuit has been launched on behalf of 6,800 patients of Dr. Christiane Farazli, the Ottawa doctor in the centre of an infection control scare while performing colonoscopies and endoscopies.
Rebecca Soroka and Jean-Francois Farjon are two of her former patients named as the main plaintiffs, and said the suit is about accountability, not money.
"She told me to shut up, take it like a woman," Soroka said of the procedure she says caused damage and injury. "She kept ramming that thing where there was nowhere to go."
The lawsuit comes after an inspection revealed poor sterilization techniques at her clinic put those thousands of patients at risk of hepatitis and HIV.
It has been filed by Merchant Law Group, which said it wants to hear from as many patients as possible.
"Compensation should go to all 6,800 people and they should all contact us for that purpose," said Tony Mercant. "(The patients) want recognition of wrongdoing, something in the magnitude of punishment."
Soroka said Dr. Farazli gave her two colonoscopies and an endoscopy, but is worse off than she was before the procedures.
She also said now she has to live with the worry that she could have been infected.
"It's about taking responsibility for what you've done," she said. "You're a doctor, we trust you."
Merchant said anyone affected can go to http://merchantlaw.com and look under "class action" for the file.
He said the money from a claim would come from the Canadian Medical Protective Association, and he's handled similar cases before.
CTV Ottawa visited Dr. Farazli's office on Wednesday and found it was open, but it was once again locked up on Thursday.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
