CHICAGO (AP) – One of two doctors under scrutiny for treating pregnant women with an anti-convulsion drug fled a $26 million lawsuit Tuesday, charging Cook County Hospital’s medical director slandered him by saying the practice violated ethical principles.

The lawsuit includes a version of the doctors’ practices almost diametricaly opposed to that offered by hospital officials, wo had said the doctors secretly gave injections of Dilantin to as many as 240 women—nearly all of them pregnant—as part of an improper experiment.

Attorney Richard Brauer, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Lawrence Lavine, said the doctors were giving the anti-convulsant in the course of treating the women shortly before their babies were delivered and not as an experiment, that they were doing so “in the open” and under supervision, and that informed written consent was obtained from every patient treated.

“They did what doctors do all the time…try to ensure the health of their patients. And because of the outcry, now the hospital is going to crucify them,” said Brauer.

The doctors began administering the anti-convulsants for four months beginning last September, after receiving approval from the hospital’s medical staff for a study involving 50 women undergoing emergency caesarean section.

After media reports on the practice in late May, Cook County Medical Director Dr. Agnes Lattimer said the doctors had gone beyond the scope of the experiment.