Fabio Ortega Lawsuit: Criminal Case, $35M Settlement, Illinois Law

The Fabio Ortega lawsuits are a set of more than 75 civil cases accusing a former Chicago-area obstetrician-gynecologist of sexually abusing patients over roughly three decades, and accusing his former employers, Endeavor Health (formerly NorthShore University HealthSystem) and Swedish Hospital, of ignoring warnings about him. Endeavor disclosed in late 2024 that it was spending $453 million on costs and settlements tied to the claims, and by February 18, 2025, it had settled the final pending cases.¹ Ortega himself pleaded guilty in 2021 to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and served about a year in prison.²

Who Ortega Is and Where He Practiced

Ortega worked as an OB-GYN at Swedish Covenant Hospital from 1989 to 2007 and at NorthShore University HealthSystem from 2006 to 2017, with about a year of overlap between the two jobs.³ He saw patients at offices in Skokie and Lincolnwood and at NorthShore Evanston Hospital.⁴ NorthShore placed him on leave on August 14, 2017, and he resigned about a year later, around the time of his 2018 indictment.⁵ Swedish Covenant was later acquired by NorthShore, which rebranded as Endeavor Health, which is why a single corporate defendant now sits behind claims from both hospitals.⁶

What Patients Alleged

The lawsuits and investigative reporting describe a consistent pattern of conduct during gynecological visits: asking patients about their sex lives and sexual fantasies during vaginal exams, performing ungloved breast exams, attempting to sexually stimulate patients, and conducting pelvic exams that were not medically necessary.⁴ The allegations reach back to 1989, when Ortega began at Swedish Covenant, and continue across both hospital systems for roughly three decades.⁷

One lawsuit alleged Ortega targeted patients he thought were less likely to recognize or report the conduct, including young women (some as young as 14), Spanish-speaking patients, pregnant women, and patients on Medicare or from underserved communities. In a 2024 complaint, a patient who came to the hospital for a rape kit said Ortega performed unnecessary pelvic and breast exams; when she asked staff about it, they reportedly told her, “That’s how he is. It’s normal.”⁸

What the Hospitals Were Told, and When

The civil cases turn largely on the theory that NorthShore and Swedish Hospital knew or should have known Ortega was a danger to patients and failed to act. The documented complaints stretch back more than a decade before he was placed on leave.

In 2006 or 2007, a patient reported an exam that left her in tears and asked for a chaperone. Endeavor later said it had no record of her, noting records from that period may have been purged.⁴
In 2012, a patient complained directly to Endeavor about inappropriate questions and touching. Obstetrics leadership met with Ortega, and an internal note indicates the patient later “apologized” for her “misconception.” No further discipline was documented.⁴
In 2014, a patient filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. The IDFPR closed the file because it could not reach her for follow-up.⁴
Between 2014 and 2016, several patients said they told Endeavor staff they refused to see Ortega. A 2016 Yelp review cited in court filings recounted being told “too bad.”⁴
In January 2017, a patient’s husband complained to the Skokie office, and the patient reported the incident to Skokie police.⁴

An employee had also told a supervisor that Ortega made patients and nursing staff uncomfortable.⁸ Endeavor did not tell patients Ortega was under investigation and did not remove him from patient care. One lawsuit alleges he sexually assaulted a patient on August 12, 2017, the day after Skokie police interviewed him.⁴

The Criminal Case

Ortega was indicted in 2018 on one count of criminal sexual assault tied to the 2017 complainant and was arrested that September.³ On October 19, 2021, at age 75, he pleaded guilty in Cook County Circuit Court to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The judge imposed three-year sentences on each of the two cases, to run concurrently.⁹ His attorneys said he served about a year in prison.² He must stay on the state sex offender registry for life.⁵

The IDFPR temporarily suspended his medical license in September 2018, seventeen days after his indictment, and permanently revoked it in December 2021.¹⁰ Many other women whose allegations fell outside the statute of limitations, or for whom prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence, never saw criminal charges filed.¹¹ That gap is one reason so much of the accountability has played out in civil court.

How the Civil Lawsuits Were Filed and Resolved

The first civil lawsuits were filed in 2019, with plaintiffs suing under pseudonyms such as “Jane Doe 5.”¹² Attorneys chose to file individual cases in Cook County Circuit Court rather than a class action because each woman’s experience and damages were different.⁷ By May 2024, 60 former patients had sued, and lawyers said hundreds more had retained counsel without yet filing.¹³

The complaints named Ortega, Endeavor Health, and Swedish Hospital and generally alleged both vicarious liability and direct negligence for failing to act on complaints. Endeavor and Swedish argued that Ortega’s conduct was proper medical care, that certain accusers were “confused or lying,” and that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations.¹¹ In June 2024, a Cook County judge denied motions to dismiss, ruling that the medical statute-of-limitations and statute-of-repose defenses did not apply because sexual assault is not “patient care.”¹³ That ruling opened the door to the settlements that followed.

Endeavor resolved the cases in waves. Twenty-two settled between 2019 and 2023, another 32 in late December 2024, and a final 23 on February 18, 2025. Eight additional suits against Ortega and Swedish Hospital also settled, bringing the total above 75.¹ All settlement terms are confidential, and Endeavor has never publicly admitted wrongdoing.⁴

The scale of the payouts became public in November 2024, when Endeavor disclosed in a financial statement that it was spending $453 million on “costs, expenses and settlement of claims” tied to a doctor accused of sexual abuse. That spending was largely behind a reported $339 million loss for the period ending September 30, 2024. Endeavor did not name Ortega in the filing and has declined to break down how the total is divided among individual cases.¹⁴ Plaintiffs’ attorneys have also noted that Endeavor continued to pay Ortega’s legal bills after his conviction.¹¹

The Separate $35 Million Malpractice Settlement

One large settlement tied to Ortega was not a sexual abuse case. In April 2023, NorthShore and Ortega agreed to a $35 million medical malpractice settlement over a 2015 delivery at Evanston Hospital in which a premature cesarean of twins left one baby with catastrophic injuries, including cerebral palsy. The suit alleged Ortega left the hospital to see clinic patients, returned late, and allowed a third-year resident to perform the procedure. An earlier three-week trial had ended in a hung jury, with all but two jurors finding Ortega negligent.¹⁵ That figure is separate from the sexual abuse settlements and from the $453 million Endeavor has reported spending on the abuse claims.

Illinois Law Changes That Followed

The Ortega scandal drove new reporting rules in Illinois. A Chicago Tribune investigation helped prompt a law signed by Governor JB Pritzker that requires healthcare facilities to report allegations of patient abuse to the Illinois Department of Public Health, which then triggers a state investigation. The law extended reporting duties beyond hospitals to doctors’ offices and clinics affiliated with hospitals, a change that matters because many of Ortega’s alleged offenses happened at satellite offices rather than in a hospital building.⁶

A broader bill, HB3711, was introduced by State Representative Kelly M. Cassidy in the 104th General Assembly. As of May 31, 2026, it has passed both chambers of the Illinois legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature.¹⁶ It would require healthcare businesses and individual workers to report allegations of sexual or intimate misconduct to the state, require hospitals to keep logs of such allegations and share them with regulators, allow discipline of licensed professionals who fail to report, and create a Sexual Assault Survivors Fund. It would also require police to notify the IDFPR within 30 days of opening a felony or serious-misdemeanor investigation into a licensed healthcare worker, and let the state penalize hospitals whose “reckless failure to report” endangers patients.¹⁷

1
Chicago Tribune. Endeavor Health Fabio Ortega Settlements
2
ABC 7 Chicago. Dr. Fabio Ortega Gynecologist Sexual Abuse Chicago News
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USA Today. Gynecologist Dr. Fabio Ortega Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Chicagoland Hospital
4
Amark Foundation. Part 3
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Chicago Tribune. Patients Sue Endeavor Health Fabio Ortega
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Yahoo News. Endeavor Health Spending $453 Million
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NBC News. Lawsuit Accuses Chicago Doctor Abusing 300 Women Decades
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CBS News Chicago. Lawsuit Filed Gynecologist Accused of Sexual Abuse
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CBS News Chicago. Ex-NorthShore Gynecologist Fabio Ortega Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing Patients
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CBS News Chicago. Chicago OB-GYN Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Illinois
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Rblaw.net. Sexual Abuse Survivor Former OB-GYN Fabio Ortega
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Scribd. Jane Doe 5 and John Doe 5 vs. NorthShore University HealthSystem Dr. Fabio Ortega
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Chicago Tribune. Fabio Ortega Endeavor Lawsuits
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Yahoo News. Endeavor Health Settles Final 23
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Patch. $35M Settlement NorthShore Sex Offender OB-GYN Birth Injury Suit
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Illinois General Assembly. HB3711 Bill Status
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Chicago Tribune. New Protections on the Way for Patients Against Sexual Abuse Misconduct by Healthcare Workers