DETROIT (WWJ) -- Thirteen families have filed a federal class action lawsuit against a Toledo pediatric urologist and two major hospital systems, alleging the doctor illicitly photographed young patients' genitals during examinations and that the institutions failed to stop him.
The complaint, filed Nov. 4 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, names Dr. Bryan Shanley Sack, from Ann Arbor, alongside Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Mercy Health – St. Vincent Medical Center.
It seeks to represent an estimated 1,000 to 2,500 children treated by Sack, many of whom were infants and toddlers.
Sack, the former Chief of Pediatric Urology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital – Toledo, was arrested in February 2026 on federal child pornography charges. According to a sworn FBI affidavit cited in the civil suit, his personal Dropbox account contained close-up surgical photos of children’s genitals stored alongside more than 1,200 child pornography files and 27,000 images flagged as child-exploitative. One IP address tied to the account mapped directly to a Mercy Health network in Toledo.
The civil complaint details instances where Sack allegedly used a personal cell phone to photograph exposed patients, including a three-week-old infant. Parents reported that Sack removed young children from examination rooms without chaperones or parents present. In another instance, he allegedly offered to accompany a 9- or 10-year-old boy into a restroom for a urine sample before the child's father stepped in.
Flood Law attorney David Champine told WWJ Newsradio 950's Amanda Forrester that, along with Toledo, Sack also saw patients in Ann Arbor and Columbus.
Champine said there are a number of troubling stories from patients.
"One of these children needed a urine sample, was gonna go in the bathroom and do a urine sample, right? And Sack had said to him, you know, 'I'll go in there with you'," Champine said. "And, fortunately, that child's father intervened and stopped it."
Following Sack's arrest, Nationwide Children’s stated publicly that law enforcement indicated the charges were unrelated to his clinical practice. In March, hospital staff personally assured at least one family that no patients were compromised. However, an unsealed FBI affidavit in May directly contradicted those statements, revealing the discovery of clinical surgical images on Sack’s account—a practice his employer confirmed violated hospital policy.
“Parents handed their children to these hospitals at their most vulnerable: undressed, sedated, too young to speak. The hospitals told families no patients were affected. Three months later, the FBI said otherwise,” said Todd Flood, an attorney representing the families, in a news release Friday. “Every family deserves to know whether images of their child left that exam room. This case is about finding out, and about accountability.”
The civil suit alleges violations of federal child exploitation statutes, negligence, negligent supervision, and fraudulent concealment. The plaintiffs are demanding compensatory and punitive damages, an independent audit of every image Sack accessed, mandatory notification for all former patients, and court-ordered funding for mental health counseling.
Sack has pleaded not guilty in the separate criminal case, with a trial scheduled for January 2027.
Families of potential victims are urged to reach out either to Flood Law or the FBI. Champine said the law firm an FBI contact for this case.
