Longtime Northwest suburban resident Elizabeth Gale thought she was the victim of satanic cult, a "breeder" whose children had been stolen to be exploited in pornography, sex abuse, incest and bestiality.
She was so frightened by the idea that she had a tubal ligation in 1991 so no more of her children could be taken.
Turns out it was all in her head. Gale had never had any children, and there was no cult.
The ideas were put there, her lawyers said, by three psychiatric doctors who employed the now-controversial technique of "repressed memory" therapy on Gale for a period of more than 5 and a half years - including 18 separate hospitalizations and 2,016 days of in-patient treatment.
On Wednesday, Gale settled with the doctors, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's, and Rush North Shore Medical center for $7.5 million.
Gale was one of many patients under the doctors' care. Although the technique is controversial now, at the time it was all the rage in the medical community, said Mary Ellen Busch, an attorney who represented both Rush entities.
The belief behind repressed memory therapy is that sometimes people suppress events that were too horrible to face and can recall those events only by a combination of hypnosis, drugging and extensive questioning.
Ken Merlino, one of Gale's lawyers, said the doctors, Bennett Braun, Roberta Sachs and Corydon Hammond, used overly suggestive questioning and unsafe levels of drugs that caused hallucinations. They also did not follow protocols for keeping patients separated, leading to what is known as "symptom sharing."
"On hundreds of occasions, Ms. Gale was tied down, over-medicated with Inderal, a heart medication not appropriate for psychiatric disorders, and essentially brainwashed by these three defendants," a prepared statement by Merlino's firm said.
Adding to the suggestive nature of the treatment was the doctors' "basic tenet (that) you can't get better until you get worse," said Merlino, which meant patients had to admit actions that didn't happen or face more harrowing treatment.
"As you can see, it sort of builds on itself," said Merlino.
No attorneys for the doctors could be reached for comment, but Busch stressed that the three were not employees of Rush, and added that at the time, when medicine was desperately seeking new approaches to treating multiple personality disorder and other poorly understood maladies, the techniques used were thought to be sound.
"The care that was provided ... was acceptable (at that time) and provided by well-respected experts in the field," she said.
Rush didn't go to trial, she said, because the hospitals were afraid that a jury wouldn't be able to differentiate between the attitudes toward the techniques then and now.
Braun's cases drew national attention and even inspired an episode of the hit TV series "Law and Order." Another of Braun's patients, Patricia Burgus, formerly of Wheaton, won $10.6 million in 1997. Three other patients lost their cases when courts ruled the statute of limitation had run out, Merlino said.
Braun eventually lost his Illinois license, but the other two doctors did not, Merlino said. He believes all three left Illinois, but Merlino does not know where or if they are still practicing.
Gale, who was referred to Braun's care, initially went in to see him for the treatment of "mainstream general depression," Merlino said.
Merlino said Gale, who is single and lives in the Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Schaumburg, is close with her mother, brother and sister.
"She's just piecing her life together," said Merlino. "She's a terrific woman and strong."
Of the $7.5 million award, Hammond will pay $175,000, Sachs will pay $3.1 million, Braun will pay $500,000, Rush St. Luke's will pay $150,000 and Rush North Shore will pay $3.6 million.