More than 100 patients are part of a class-action lawsuit against a Maryland hospital after it was discovered that an obstetrician-gynecologist used a fake Social Security number to obtain his medical license in Maryland.
A federal investigation found the man, known as Dr. Charles Akoda, had been using stolen Social Security numbers to advance his medical career and obtain professional certifications for over two decades, according to the Washington Post. He was actually Oluwafemi Charles Igberase and he had been caring for women and babies for years at Prince George’s Hospital Center.
“I’m scarred for life. I do not want any more kids at all because of that. And I do not trust any male doctor at all anymore,” Jazmine Tinsley told NBC News 4.
“During my delivery, I thought I was losing my life,” she said of her pregnancy five years ago. “So, the fact that I’m just finding out that this man was a fake at the end of the day is really hurting me because everything that I went through with my delivery, and afterward when it came to my health, has still damaged me still to this day.”
According to U.S. Attorney’s Office, Igberase pleaded guilty last November to misusing a Social Security number to fraudulently obtain a Maryland medical license. He apparently entered the United States in October 1991 and repeatedly used fake Social Security numbers to practice medicine. In 2000, he was dismissed from a residency program in New Jersey after he was found using a fake Social Security number.
But he reappeared again in 2011 as Charles John Nosa Akoda, and obtained a medical license in Maryland.
The lawsuit claims that the hospital failed to perform a proper background check on Igberase and allowed an impostor to practice medicine at the facility for five years.
“Maybe they should have checked his Social Security number. They would have learned that he’s a fraud,” attorney Jonathon Schochor said. “We’re suing them because they had an absolute obligation to complete a thorough, appropriate background check on this physician, on this OB-GYN, to make sure he was not a fraud.”
Prince George’s Hospital Center said they had no reason to question Akoda because his license was in good standing.
“We are disappointed that our expectation of integrity was not met in the case of Dr. Akoda given his complex sophisticated identity theft scheme,” the hospital said.