Virginia revokes license of pediatrician accused of patient abuse

A Virginia pediatrician accused of abusing teenage patients and a young mother has had his license temporarily revoked, NBC News confirmed Friday.

Dr. Martin Seth Forman, who until recently worked for Reston Pediatrics in Lansdowne, about 40 miles northwest of Washington, DC, was informed of the decision in a May 7 letter from the state Department of Health Professions, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

“Based on the information considered and having determined that your practice poses a significant threat to the public health and safety, the Virginia Board of Medicine has decided to suspend your license to practice medicine in the State of Virginia pending a hearing,” the letter said. The Department of Health Professions cited four separate incidents of Forman’s alleged sexual misconduct in its letter.

“Effective immediately,” the letter continues, “you are prohibited from practicing medicine or holding yourself out as a licensed physician in the State of Virginia.”

Forman, 71, who has never been charged with a crime, has not yet commented publicly on the allegations against him or responded to phone calls seeking comment.

Forman’s attorney, Coreen Silverman, confirmed last year that the doctor was planning to retire and had no intention of returning to his practice.

Silverman, who also represents Reston Pediatrics, said in a statement earlier this week: “Dr. Forman denies the allegations and will appear before the committee to present his side of the story. We are confident that the committee will dismiss the claims after hearing his side of the story.”

A formal hearing before a medical board panel originally scheduled for June 14 has been postponed. It is unclear when the hearing will take place.

Silverman had previously described the allegations against Forman as a money-making scheme and a “public campaign to destroy the name of a good man.”

On Friday, NBC Washington reported that a family in Virginia filed a new complaint against Forman with the Virginia Board of Medicine. In the complaint, the family alleged that the doctor said, “You can milk a baby” and pinched their newborn’s nipple during a 2022 appointment.

The newborn’s father, who spoke exclusively to NBC Washington, also alleged in the complaint before the committee that Forman inappropriately touched the child’s mother’s knee and leg during several appointments.

The Loudoun Times-Mirror was the first newspaper to report earlier this week that Forman’s medical license had been temporarily suspended.

Forman’s medical license was revoked nearly a year after NBC News reported that the doctor was still treating patients despite a $1.3 million civil damages settlement after he entered the home of a 15-year-old patient in 2017 under the guise of an unscheduled “house call” and allegedly groped the girl’s breasts.

“It was about damn time,” the now grown-up young woman said Friday in an email that her lawyer Jim Magner forwarded to NBC News.

Her mother said in the same email that she, too, was relieved that Forman could no longer practice medicine.

“It is high time that the justice system did its job,” said the mother.

At this time, Forman was also introduced to the parents of another patient for allegedly touching her breasts and rubbing himself against her earlier this year while performing a lymph node scan that her parents said was unnecessary. This case is ongoing.

Then, in August 2023, Forman was sued in Loudoun County District Court by a Virginia mother. In court documents, she said the doctor was “pretending” to examine her son’s ears when he began rubbing her, NBC News reported at the time.

“I am glad that those of us who have been victims of Dr. Forman and Reston Pediatrics are finally being heard and taken seriously,” the Virginia mother said in an email Friday that Magner also forwarded to NBC News.