Anesthesiologist trashes sedated patient — and it ends up costing her

[IceWizard]

Http://washingtonpost.com/local/anesthes...d=pm_pop_b

These audio clips are excerpts from
conversations between a gastroenterologist, an anesthesiologist and a medical assistant during a colonoscopy. This was entered as evidence in a lawsuit filed by the patient for defamation and medical malpractice.
(The Washington Post)

Sitting in his surgical gown inside a large
medical suite in Reston, Va., a Vienna man
prepared for his colonoscopy by pressing
record on his smartphone, to capture the
instructions his doctor would give him after the
procedure.

But as soon as he pressed play on his way
home, he was shocked out of his anesthesia-
induced stupor: He found that he had recorded
the entire examination and that the surgical
team had mocked and insulted him as soon as
he drifted off to sleep.

In addition to their vicious commentary, the
doctors discussed avoiding the man after the
colonoscopy, instructing an assistant to lie to
him, and then placed a false diagnosis on his
chart.

“After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op,”
the anesthesiologist told the sedated patient, “I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit,” she was recorded saying.

When a medical assistant noted the man had a rash, the anesthesiologist warned her not to
touch it, saying she might get “some syphilis on your arm or something,” then added, “It’s
probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be
all right.”

[Listen to clips of doctors trashing the patient]

When the assistant noted that the man
reported getting queasy when watching a
needle placed in his arm, the anesthesiologist
remarked on the recording, “Well, why are you
looking then, retard?”

There was much more. So the man sued the
two doctors and their practices for defamation
and medical malpractice and, last week, after a
three-day trial, a Fairfax County jury ordered
the anesthesiologist and her practice to pay
him $500,000.

The plaintiff, identified in court papers only as
“D.B.,” wanted to maintain his anonymity and
did not want to comment about the case, said
his attorneys, Mikhael Charnoff and Scott
Perry.

The anesthesiologist, Tiffany M. Ingham, 42,
could not be reached for comment, and her
attorney, D. Lee Rutland, did not return
messages seeking comment. Ingham worked
out of the Aisthesis anesthesia practice in
Bethesda, Md., which the jury ruled should pay $50,000 of the $200,000 in punitive damages itawarded.

Officials there did not return a call
seeking comment. Ingham no longer works
there, an Aisthesis employee said, and state
licensing records indicate that she has moved
to Florida.

An anesthesiology practice in Tavares, Fla., said she no longer worked there.
Calls to a number believed to be Ingham’s were not returned, and there was not an answering machine or voicemail at that number.