Montreal family doctor admits to fathering child with 19-year-old patient

File photo. (CTV)

A Montreal family doctor has vowed to stop practicing medicine after he admitted to fathering a child with a 19-year-old woman who was his patient.

Dr. Joseph Mbea Bitchoka, who has been registered with Quebec's College of physicians since July 13, 1984, admitted to the affair after the young woman filed a complaint.

According to an agreed statement of facts filed with the Collège des médecins du Québec, the doctor has been the sole practitioner of his clinic since 2012 and had been treating upwards of 2,000 patients, most of whom were elderly.

The complainant, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, began seeing him in 2018 in his office which was next to his home. In 2022, she began having sexual relations with Bitchoka and in November 2023, she gave birth to a child "of which he acknowledges being the father," the document stated.

Her parents, one of whom was also a patient of Bitchoka, were aware of the relationship.

Bitchoka admitted to violating the Code of ethics of physicians.

Both parties in the disciplinary proceeding recommend a seven-year ban on practising medicine and a $6,000 fine.

A decision is expected in the coming months.

This was not the first time the Montreal doctor was disciplined. In July 2012, he was suspended for two months and fined $3,000 for misconduct.

According to the agreed statement of facts, between November and December 2010, he committed "derogatory acts toward a patient who consulted him in his office on November 26, 2010, notably by revealing personal telephone numbers, meeting her at a restaurant on three occasions, receiving her at his home on a few occasions, revealing several elements of her personal life and allowing psychological and physical intimacy to develop, resulting in sexual comments and gestures."