He was undergoing a colonoscopy, but the medical staff was the real pain in the butt.
A Virginia man won a $500,000 case against a local anesthesiologist and her practice after he unknowingly recorded them mocking and intentionally misdiagnosing him while he was unconscious, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The man, a Vienna resident identified only as "D.B." in court records, went to Dr. Tiffany Ingham's Reston practice in April 2013, Courthouse News Service reported.
He started recording the procedure, wanting to capture the doctor's instructions for post-operative care. He forgot to stop recording once he went under anesthesia.
Only on his way home did he hear how sick the doctor and her assistants really were.
"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," Ingham said almost as soon as he was unconscious, as heard in audio uploaded by the Post.
Ingham warned an assistant not to touch a rash the man had because she might get "some syphilis on your arm." She also joked that the rash was "penis ebola" and "probably tuberculous in the penis."
One assist called the patient a "retard." The staff members wondered if the man is gay, and Ingham said she knows "gay men that have more manliness" than the patient.
And she told her staff to writer that he had hemorrhoids — which he did not. The staffers are heard mocking patients at large for their gullibility and over-reliance on medical advice from the Internet.
Ingham, 42, no longer works at that practice. She relocated to a practice in Tavares, Fla. but it's unclear where she is working now, according to the Post.
The man won his massive amount for medical malpractice, punitive damages and also defamation -- $50,000 for the tuberculosis comment and another $50,000 for the syphilis one.
"I've never heard of a case like this," defamation lawyer Lee Berlik told the Post, noting that doctors' comments are usually privileged, but in this case the recording caught the doctor and her staff talking about things far different from the work at hand.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
I was awake when they operated on my knee. They gave me a spinal so I was numb from the chest down but wide awake. I laid there for a long while and listened to them all talk. Then they started talking about health care so I put my two cents in. The room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. They weren't used to patients being awake.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
I talked, too, during my c-section. It put them off as well. My doctor was talking about just getting back from her honeymoon and I asked where she went. LOL
I talked, too, during my c-section. It put them off as well. My doctor was talking about just getting back from her honeymoon and I asked where she went. LOL
They usually put everyone under but the anesthesiologist asked me if I had any issues with it. I told him it made me puke for days. He asked if I'd ever had an epidural and I said yes with no problem so they did that. It was so much better. But it was weird hearing them all talk. They just talked about random things. Weather, lunch, stuff like that. I don't remember any earth shattering conversations except when they started talking about health care.
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“You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!” ― Maya Angelou
I, too, had an epidural when they replaced my knee, but they also gave me very light sedation. One of the OR nurses came to see me the next day - she wanted to know how to make one of the recipes I told the entire OR about!
I verified Ingham's medical license and she shows as actively licensed with no discipline. I hope there was a complaint made to the licensing board. There may have been - licensing boards often do not show investigation of complaints unless and until it becomes public information like a reprimand, suspension or revocation. I hope they the patient made a formal complaint to the hospital also. The hospital's risk manager, and Joint Commission should be all over something like this.
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No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are,
I was awake when they operated on my knee. They gave me a spinal so I was numb from the chest down but wide awake. I laid there for a long while and listened to them all talk. Then they started talking about health care so I put my two cents in. The room got so quiet you could hear a pin drop. They weren't used to patients being awake.
They are "used" to pts being awake. Pts' are awake for all kinds of procedures, under spinals or epidurals or lightly sedated. It isn't uncommon for surgeons to make chitchat with the staff or even pts while working depending on the procedure.
It's strange that they don't name a hospital in the article. Makes me think maybe it happened at a free-standing surgi-center. It says "practice" in the article. Maybe it was office-based surgery.
That's even scarier.
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No matter how educated, talented, rich or cool you believe you are,