A Long Island hospital is facing multiple lawsuits over a worker was accused of filming as many as 13,000 patients and staff in the bathroom.
Northwell Hope sleep technician Sanjai Syamaprasad, 47, was busted in April for the alleged secret recordings — including videos of young children — that he shot with a camera disguised as a smoke detector in nine bathrooms at two facilities, prosecutors said.
Now, the hospital is facing at least four lawsuits for victims — including one suit seeking class-action status that was filed Wednesday.
“We are deeply disturbed and outraged by the recent revelations that individuals, including our clients, were being filmed in the bathrooms at Northwell Health and STARS Rehab,” said Benjamin Dell and Christopher Dean, the two attorneys who filed the most recent case.
“The idea that such a violation of privacy could occur in a place meant for healing and trust is absolutely unacceptable,” the lawyers said in a statement.
“The damage done by this breach of privacy is not just emotional — it’s a violation of our most basic expectations of safety and decency. We expect answers. We expect accountability. And most importantly, we need real assurances that this will never happen again.”
Syamaprasad worked the overnight shift at the Northwell Sleep Disorders Center in Manhasset between July 2023 and April 2024 and filmed thousands of both patients and co-workers, some multiple times — and he may have bought his first covert recording device as early as August 2022, officials said.
Northwell has so far sent out 13,000 letters to each potential victim, with attorneys estimating the true number of victims could be even higher as investigators continue to comb through months of footage.
The hospital has maintained that it cooperated fully with law enforcement and followed a request from Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office to delay its notice to possible victims until the criminal probe was ongoing.
But victims’ attorneys argue that silence only made things worse.
“They’ve expressed how violated they feel and how afraid they are of public restrooms and changing rooms,” Joel Rubenstein, an attorney representing a batch of victims in one of the class action suits, said in a statement.
Syamaprasad was busted in April when a clinician spotted him watching footage of a man using the toilet, blowing the lid off the twisted scheme, according to the accusations against him.
He then allegedly tried to cover his tracks by tossing several memory cards and recording devices into a dumpster near his Brooklyn home shortly after he was caught.
Syamaprasad faces multiple charges, and prosecutors said additional counts are likely as the investigation unfolds.
“It’s disgusting, and it’s sickening,” Donnelly said.
“He’s supposed to be a medical professional.”
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