RESTON, VA June 24 (DPI) – A series of foolish jokes and insulting remarks by an anesthesiologist and a surgeon performing a colonoscopy led to a $500,000 award by a Northern Virginia jury this week – far less than what the plaintiff was seeking.
The episode during a routine procedure – all recorded on a cell phone – exposed the doctors as insensitive louts, but not necessarily incompetents. The plaintiff, who was not identified, sued for malpractice and defamation.
The anesthesiologist, Tiffany Ingham, fled to Florida after the lawsuit was publicized, and hasn’t been reached. In the course of the three-day trial, claims against the gastroenterologist, Soloman Shah, were dismissed.
Notable, though, were the way in which the Washington Post and National Public Radio focused on the most foolish and insensitive remarks of the doctors, while ignoring the overall joking nature of the exchange during a routine procedure. (It’s not clear from media reports that a true form of negligence – the intention to falsify a patient’s chart – was more than a stated joke.)
The plaintiff was seeking $1.75 million, according to The Washington Post.
While many readers in attached comments shared a disgust for the doctors’ conduct, some argued that the plaintiff should have received no compensation, pointing out that inappropriate and offense remarks hardly constitute a form of malpractice.
From The Washington Post, which described the doctors’ comments as “vicious”:
After declaring the patient a “big wimp,” Ingham reportedly said: “People are into their medical problems. They need to have medical problems.”
Shah replied, “I call it the Northern Virginia syndrome,” according to the suit.
The doctors argued that the Vienna man did not suffer any physical injury or miss any days of work. The man’s complaint said that he was “verbally brutalized” and suffered anxiety, embarrassment and loss of sleep for several months.
Among more than 2300 comments Wednesday, the “most liked” comments:
I’m actually not surprised by this. Doctor’s and nurses can get some pretty bad attitudes. And it’s usually taken out on the patient. Most of them think that they’re gods and are generally quite callous toward their patients behind their backs. Some of them are callous to the patient’s face. But mostly they just think they’re super cool and godlike and that came out in what happened while this man was under.
As a retired health care worker I know that there are jokes, and then there is derision. These unprofessional people crossed the line. And to put fake information on their medical records? That should be a crime. It is people like this that make the rest of the mostly decent health care workers look bad. There are bad apples in every profession and those that aren’t should have the guts to expose them.
Wow — I’m not shocked by much, but I’m amazed that so many (supposedly) bright, college educated people — in healthcare — would be so mean and stupid to a patient. You might find one dumb one on the crowd, but to have so many in the room at one time — I just find it remarkable.
And another:
I want money for being insulted in a private conversation that I only know about because I recorded their conversation in secret. This had NOTHING to do with malpractice or the safety of the patient. The anesthesiologist doesn’t make a determination of condition, so her statement of hemorrhoids was just a note as to why they were doing the procedure. Nothing done was illegal. They had a private conversation and it was secretly recorded. Think about that the next time you say something negative about anything or any person and how it would be portrayed if it was recorded and made national news. Then everyone says you owe money. The who thing is ridiculous and just another example of how horrible our court system is and how horrible our society is in wanting free money through the courts. You don’t like what the doc said. Don’t go back to that doctor. You don’t deserve money because the doctor insulted you in a private conversation.