PITTSBURGH – A Western Pennsylvania married couple alleges that a local hospital system was negligent in employing a radiology technician who used hidden cameras at West Penn Hospital to record more than 50 female patients in states of undress, with one of them being the wife-plaintiff.
Chelsea Pittek and Jonathan Pittek of Bethel Park first filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on July 26 versus West Penn Allegheny Health System, Inc. (doing business as “The Western Pennsylvania Hospital”), of Pittsburgh.
“Plaintiff Chelsea Pittek, sought cancer treatment through defendant, West Penn Hospital, as a patient. The matters complained of herein occurred on or about Sept. 18, 2019. Plaintiff Chelsea Pittek, presented to defendant West Penn Hospital on or about Sept. 18, 2019, for a lymph node mapping procedure related to a cancer diagnosis,” the suit says.
“On Sept. 18, 2019, and for some time prior therefore, Guy Caley, who was at the time on employee of defendant, West Penn Hospital, and who was employed by defendant within the radiology department, performed the lymph node mapping procedure on plaintiff, at times with the assistance of another, unidentified employee of defendant, West Penn Hospital.”
The suit says on that day and more than one year beforehand, Caley was using hidden camera(s) in the procedure room and other portions of the hospital premises, where plaintiff was required to undress for her lymph node mapping procedure. Caley’s actions were discovered by local police three months later.
“On Dec. 17, 2019, police were called to West Penn Hospital after an employee discovered a camera in the unisex employee bathroom, which prompted an investigation by the Allegheny County detectives and led to criminal charges being filed against Caley, including charges for invasion of privacy and illegal use of wire or oral communications,” the suit states.
“As part of the criminal investigation described above, Caley admitted to using at least one hidden camera to record individuals without their knowledge or consent in a unisex employee bathroom and another bathroom on the third floor of West Penn Hospital. Caley further admitted that he downloaded the video footage onto his personal computer. The police criminal investigation first identified multiple co-workers of Caley as the individuals shown in the bathroom videos.”
As the criminal investigation progressed, the criminal investigators, discovered other video footage that had been attempted to be deleted by Caley, but which was recovered from his computer’s hard drive.
The additional video footage shows an unknown number of patients (believed to be more than 50) of defendant, West Penn Hospital, undressing and undergoing medical procedures in an examination room of defendant’s facility.
“Through the investigative efforts of the Allegheny County detectives, plaintiff was identified as one of the victims of Caley, and was contacted by letter in July 2020 to inform her of the situation and to request that she contact the Allegheny County detectives,” the suit adds.
“Plaintiff was subsequently interviewed by the Allegheny County detectives and asked to view multiple video recordings that were taken of her by Caley, without her knowledge, while she was undergoing the lymph node mapping procedure at defendant’s hospital.”
Pittek was requested to view multiple video recording segments of herself, from various angles during the course of procedure and identified herself from the video footage.
For counts of invasion of privacy (intrusion upon seclusion), intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and loss of consortium, the plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of the arbitration limit, plus costs and any other relief that this Honorable Court deems just under the circumstances.
The plaintiffs are represented by Erin K. Rudert of Ainsman Levine, in Pittsburgh.
The defendant has not yet obtained legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-21-008582
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com