Ex-Baylor doctor found guilty of raping patient at Ben Taub hospital

Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh, former Ben Taub and Methodist doctor accused of raping a patient. Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh, former Ben Taub and Methodist doctor accused of raping a patient. Photo: HPD Photo: HPD Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Ex-Baylor doctor found guilty of raping patient at Ben Taub hospital 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A Houston jury Thursday convicted a former Baylor College of Medicine physician of raping a woman who had been hospitalized at Ben Taub Hospital for an acute asthma attack in 2013.

The jury of five women and seven men reached its verdict after about 15 hours of deliberation over two days. The defense team admitted the doctor had sex with a patient but said it was consensual.

The woman reported the rape to Ben Taub staff, saying an unknown physician came to her bedside three times in the dark, sexually assaulting her while she was tethered to machines. The call button she repeatedly pressed to summon a nurse was unplugged.

But it took investigators two years to identify Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh as the suspected attacker, based on DNA from her rape kit. Sheikh, an internal medicine resident on call at Ben Taub, was spotted on surveillance video and logged swiping his badge to enter her floor at least 12 times, even though she wasn’t assigned as his patient.

TRIAL: Former Ben Taub doctor accused of raping patient testifies sex was consensual

In court this week, the 32-year-old woman testified that the attack upended her life and precipitated the end of her marriage. She was identified as Laura in a series of Houston Chronicle columns by Lisa Falkenberg about the incident. The Chronicle does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

Sheikh, now 46, lost his job, and the Texas Medical Board revoked his license in 2015, finding that he posed “a continuing threat to public welfare.” In 2016, a Harris County civil court cleared Ben Taub and Baylor of liability in a lawsuit the patient brought.

Prosecutors this week told jurors the doctor betrayed the woman’s trust when she was at her most vulnerable. Caregivers rushed to her room for several acute medical episodes and she was was unable to fight off the doctor’s assault, they said.

BACKGROUND: Patient says she became doctor's prey at Ben Taub

A lawyer defending Sheikh picked at inconsistencies in the woman’s account and vigorously questioned her credibility, asking about her career as an actress and model, and whether she agreed she had posted sexually suggestive photos and videos on social media.

Records showed her cellphone transmitted many texts and logged lengthy phone calls during her stay at the hospital, which indicated she was alert. DNA indicated she had sexual relations with her husband her first night at the hospital, which meant she couldn’t have been incapacitated, the defense said.

Their client violated medical ethics, the lawyers said, but placed the blame on the patient for allegedly seducing him to make her husband jealous and cash in on a lawsuit.

Sheikh, a father of four who emigrated from India, told jurors the patient led him on. He said she took his hand to her breasts when he was performing a chest exam. He returned later, allured by her breast implants, and she touched his genitals, he said. She then shifted onto one side and pushed her buttocks to the edge of the gurney, signaling that she wanted more, he said.

After he completed a sex act with her, without a condom, he testified, “It immediately sunk in that something terrible had happened, and I was scared for myself. You’re not supposed to have sex with a patient. That’s part of medical ethics.”

COLUMN: Immunity law works against victim of alleged rape in hospital

When he realized she had reported the incident as an assault, Sheikh said, he began checking her chart hourly. He did not come forward because he was terrified of the consequences of an obvious breach of ethics.

Baylor College of Medicine declined to comment.

But Bryan McLeod, a spokesman for the county health system that operates Ben Taub Hospital, said, “Harris Health System has been supportive of the legal process and has fully cooperated throughout the investigation and trial phase of this case.”’

“We care deeply about the safety and well-being of our patients,” he said.

Late Thursday, the jury began hearing evidence for the punishment phase of the trial. Final arguments are expected Friday.

gabrielle.banks@chron.com