Anesthesiologist Who Trashed Sleeping Patient With Gay Jokes, Fake Diagnosis, Pays Hefty Price
Ever wonder what doctors and nurses talk about when you're knocked out on the operating table?
A Virginia man learned that his surgical team was insulting him—making jokes about his sexuality and promising to lie to him about his diagnosis—as soon as he was under.
The man, referred to as "D.B.", planned to record his doctor's post-surgery instructions with his smartphone. But he accidentally recorded the entire procedure.
That's how he heard anesthesiologist Tiffany Ingham say, “After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op, I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit.”
He also heard doctors discuss avoiding the man after his colonoscopy, instructing an aide to lie, and putting a false diagnosis on his chart.
When a nurse noted the man had a rash, Ingham warned her not to touch it, because she might get “some syphilis on your arm or something.”
She added, “It’s probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be all right.”
At another point, an assistant noted the patient said he got queasy looking at the needle going in his arm. “Well, why are you looking then, retard?” Ingham replied.
It went on and on. And Ingham wasn't the only culprit.
Dr. Shah, the gastroenterologist on duty, remarked “As long as it’s not Ebola, you’re okay." He also didn't discourage Ingham from writing on D.B’s chart that he had hemorrhoids, which he didn't.
“I’m going to mark ‘hemorrhoids’ even though we don’t see them and probably won’t,” she said, and actually wrote a hemorrhoids diagnosis on the man’s chart.
Later, Ingham insulted D.B. for attending Mary Washington College, formerly an all-women’s school, and wondered aloud whether he was gay.
She also called him a “big wimp.”
Understandably, the patient was outraged—and sued the medical practice for defamation and medical malpractice. Last week a jury ordered Ingham to pay D.B. $500,000.
Experts said it doesn't matter if the comments didn't leave the O.R. Defamation just has to be said by one party to another and be understood as a fact, when it's not.
"If one of the doctors said to someone else in the room that this guy had syphilis and tuberculosis and that person believed it, that could be a claim," said one legal professional.
In court, D.B. successfully claimed the discussion was not privileged because of the number of people in the room, and the fact that it went well beyond his colonoscopy.
It's not clear whether Ingham or the doctor will face disciplinary action from the Virginia Board of Medicine.
