$500,000 Awarded After Doctors Mock Patient During Surgery

[yellowcanine]

83. Depends on the state. Virginia is a "one-party consent" state. Besides, NONE of the doctor's

colleagues are defending her actions. It was not just what she said - bad enough and very unprofessional - not anything like the "gallows humor" of an ER or an ICU - this was a routine colonoscopy. The doctors were not under any pressure, etc. This particular doctor just did not like the patient and decided to make fun of the patient in an unprofessional and personal way - cracked jokes about his genital rash - called it syphilis and "penis TB" etc. Then she went even further and entered false information into the chart - that the patient had hemorrhoids, which he did not. Sorry but doctors don't get to use the medical chart as a joke book. That is actually grounds for losing your medical license. As far as saying it to the patient's face - any anesthesiologist should know that you cannot be sure what a patient will hear or what they will not hear. People have different levels of "wakefulness" even under general anesthesia. In fact, one of the jobs of the anesthesiologist is to monitor closely the level of wakefulness of the patient, as well as vital signs - which it is hard to see how she does that when she is so busy cracking jokes. This doctor also showed a lot of disrespect for her colleagues. Not everyone on a surgical team needs or wants to hear that kind of sophomoric nonsense. It could be considered a hostile work environment for someone who was offended but didn't feel empowered to speak up. You would hope that when someone is told, "you might get syphilis on your arm or something" they would have the nerve to say quietly, "I don't think that is appropriate. Please stop." But some places still have a "The doctor is god." mentality and that could be a recipe for having the hostility directed toward the person objecting. Both my daughters and my wife are in medicine. I have heard the stories. A doctor who is a jerk is more of a problem for the other staff than for the patients. As for the recording, the patient testified he merely wanted to make sure he got any instructions which the medical staff might give him while in a groggy state.