‘Best orgasm of your life’: NSW doctor massaged patient, ‘tweaked’ nipples, made sexual comments

A NSW doctor who “tweaked” a patient’s nipples and told her he could give her “the best orgasm of your life” has learned his fate.

A NSW doctor inappropriately massaged a patient, groped her breasts and “tweaked” her nipples, and made sexualised comments including that he could give her “the best orgasm of your life” before buying her an Aldi bag of groceries to say sorry, a tribunal has found.

Dr Sharwan Narayan, 45, was prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), which this month found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and professional misconduct.

The alleged incidents occurred between February and April 2020 while Dr Narayan was working at Moruya Medical Centre on the NSW south coast.

The tribunal upheld complaints that on various occasions, Dr Narayan inappropriately touched the woman, identified as “Patient A”, inappropriately hugged her and made inappropriate sexualised comments.

Patient A, now 31, first came under the care of Dr Narayan in January 2020 after seriously injuring her knee from falling on gravel. She was referred to the clinic by Moruya District Hospital.

When she returned to the medical centre the following month to have her dressing changed, Dr Narayan suggested massage for her knee and told her he “used to be a masseuse in Fiji and said he would book her in so he could massage it for therapy to make sure she did not get a deep vein thrombosis (DVT)”, according to the tribunal’s published decision.

At her next appointment on February 11, Dr Narayan removed the dressing and massaged her knee for 10 to 15 minutes.

At one appointment, Patient A, who disclosed that she was a sexual assault survivor, said Dr Narayan asked her to hug him.

“She thought it was a bit strange and she was a bit shocked,” the tribunal said. “He did this for a few minutes.”

The patient said she ‘shut down’ during one incident. Picture: iStock

The following week, she was lying down on the treatment table when Dr Narayan removed the dressing on her knee and started massaging her leg.

She told the tribunal he “pushed her dress up and massaged further up her leg so that his hands were quite close to her pubic area”.

“Patient A said she didn’t say anything, she shut down. She had learned to disassociate during trauma she had suffered as a child. The massage lasted about 10 minutes.”

He then told her he would perform a skin check, asking her to pull her dress down to her waist.

“Patient A said Dr Narayan started cupping her breasts,” the tribunal said.

“He tweaked or played with her nipples even though she had not said anything about having any issue with her nipples and considered that there was no need for him to examine them without wearing gloves. He said, ‘Oh they’re not hard’, referring to her nipples. Patient A understood him to mean that she was not aroused. She froze and made a noncommittal response or noise, just waiting for it to be over which was in less than five minutes.”

At her next appointment on March 13, Dr Narayan massaged her knee again.

“As he began moving up her leg towards her inner thigh, Dr Narayan started asking her about her sex life with her partner and whether her partner was able to give her orgasms,” the tribunal said.

“She said something like, ‘No of course not.’ Dr Narayan then touched the outside of her vagina. When Dr Narayan finished, he kept talking about ‘sexual stuff’. He said it was a shame her partner was unable to give her an orgasm. He said he’d had a discussion with a lesbian couple and had taught them how to give each other the best orgasms.”

Patient A told the tribunal she was thinking, “What the hell is going on?”, and realised Dr Narayan was acting inappropriately.

“Then he said, ‘I can give you the best orgasm of your life,’” she said. “I was like, ‘OK.’ He again asked me for a hug and I just stood there. I then left.”

When she did not show up for a pre-booked appointment for a follow-up on a scan, she received a phone call from Dr Narayan, who asked why she hadn’t come in for the appointment and apologised if he had made her uncomfortable at the last appointment.

Dr Sharwan Narayan worked at Moruya Medical Centre in 2019 and 2020. Picture: Google

Dr Narayan asked Patient A to come to Batemans Bay Hospital that evening where he was working for a free DVT scan.

“Patient A said she felt more comfortable going to the hospital than the Centre possibly because there were more people there and security guards,” the tribunal said.

“At the hospital Dr Narayan gave her big blue Aldi shopping bag and said, ‘This is for you. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable or I thought I may have made you feel uncomfortable so this is for you.’ In the bag was a big tub of ice cream, kombucha, Dove moisturiser and chocolates. She estimated the contents would have cost more than $50. She thanked him.”

Patient A did not return to the Centre until after Dr Narayan had left the practice.

Counsel for Dr Narayan argued that Patient A’s evidence was “inexact, unclear, vague, lacking in detail and internally inconsistent”, and highlighted a number of conflicting statements about the timeline of the alleged events.

“We do not consider that any of these matters impact adversely on the reliability of the evidence of Patient A,” the tribunal found.

“We add that we found Patient A an impressive witness who readily conceded when she was not able to remember something. We found Patient A to be candid and truthful when describing what she said Dr Narayan had done or said to her … we prefer the evidence of Patient A to the evidence of Dr Narayan where they conflict unless there is reliable contemporaneous evidence to the contrary.”

The tribunal found that Dr Narayan’s conduct was “of a very serious nature and demonstrates a significant departure from accepted standards”.

“It is sufficiently serious to justify suspension or cancellation of his registration,” NCAT said.

“In arriving at this finding we take into account the following matters as indicators of the serious nature of that conduct. The Sexual Boundaries Code’s definition of breaches of sexual boundaries includes the conduct of Dr Narayan — he conducted physical examinations which were not clinically indicated, he made sexual remarks, he touched Patient A in a sexual way and he used words and acted in a way that might reasonably be interpreted as being designed or intended to arouse or gratify sexual desire.”

NCAT will determine protective orders following a further stage two hearing.

Dr Narayan previously worked in medical imaging for 18 years before obtaining a Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Notre Dame in 2015.

He was first registered to practice as a general practitioner in 2016 and was employed as a GP registrar at the Moruya Medical Centre from February 2019 to August 2020.

The Medical Council of NSW suspended his registration in September 2020 based on a separate complaint. Three other complaints brought to NCAT by the HCCC in 2023 resulted in his registration being suspended for three months.

He is currently working as a general practitioner on Norfolk Island, with conditions attached to his registration.

Originally published as ‘Best orgasm of your life’: NSW doctor massaged patient, ‘tweaked’ nipples, made sexual comments