Anesthesiologist, doctors trash talk sedated patient
A Virginia man was awarded $500,000 after discovering a recording on his phone of his anesthesiologist and doctors mocking and insulting him during a colonoscopy.
The man, identified in court documents as “D.B.,” started the recording before his procedure at a Reston, Virginia, medical facility to record the instructions doctors would give him after the procedure, the Washington Post reported.
The recording captured the entire procedure, including the surgical team mocking and taunting him. Additionally, it caught the doctors talking about avoiding the patient after the procedure as well as placing a false diagnosis on his chart.
When an assistant noted a rash on the patient, the anesthesiologist, Tiffany M. Ingham, 42, says to avoid it, as to not get “some syphilis on your arm of something,” before adding, “It’s probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be all right.”
When the assistant says the patient gets queasy with needles, the anesthesiologist says, “Well, why are you looking then, retard?”
The man sued two doctors for defamation and medical malpractice last week and was awarded $100,000 for defamation, $200,000 for medical malpractice and $200,000 in punitive damages.
Contact Kristen DeSilva at 702-477-3895 or kdesilva@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kristendesilva