KATY, Texas – A Katy mother was outraged after she claimed a school-contracted doctor crossed the line when he took her teenage daughter’s pulse.
She says despite the multiple pulse points on the body, the doctor took her pulse in the groin area. Furthermore, she says she doesn’t believe Katy ISD will stop it from happening again to other children.
She says the physical happened at Woodcreek Junior High School back in May, but she still hasn’t gotten the response from Katy ISD that she wanted.
Beverly Smith recalled that on May 11th, she said her 13-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, both Katy ISD athletes, went to get physicals for strength and conditioning training. The doctors working for Medical Colleagues of Texas were contracted through the district.
“My son went and saw the physician he came out and everything was fine,” Smith said.
But Smith says her daughter who saw a different doctor, described a very different experience about the way he took her pulse.
“I said what? She showed me, she said here… And I said under your shorts? Or on top of your shorts, not that it made a difference… he shouldn’t be touching her anyhow, and she said underneath my shorts,” Smith said.
Smith says her daughter was traumatized and anxious, and speaking to the athletic director didn’t ease the concerns.
“He told me he’s been doing it that way for years and that he’s a doctor, and I said so is Larry Nasser, and there’s no good reason that you could give me that would make that OK,” she said.
Smith says she got law enforcement involved.
The Katy ISD police report she showed KPRC 2 in part states that after her complaint, the athletic director went to observe the doctor conducting physicals and saw that he “checked for pulses the same way for every student male and female.”
A spokesperson with the Medical Colleagues of Texas said the physicals are conducted in accordance with established medical protocols.
A statement sent to KPRC 2 partly states: “The inclusion of femoral pulse readings is a routine procedure aligned with medical guidelines… specifically, this reading is used to check for coarctation of the aorta, a congenital (by birth) narrowing of the aorta.”
But, Smith who says the Texas Medical Board is now investigating the doctor, strongly disagrees.
“We have reached out to many people in the medical field, we’ve reached out to EMTs. Not a single person who is qualified, or not qualified has said that is acceptable,” she said.
Out of all of this, Smith says she’s hoping Katy ISD implements a strict policy prohibiting groin area pulse checks.
KPRC 2 has reached out to Katy ISD, but have not heard back. Regardless, Smith says she will not be allowing her kids to have another physical through the district.