A Virginia man who sued his anesthesiologist was awarded $500,000 after a three-day trial last week after it was revealed that the doctor mocked the patient as he underwent a colonoscopy in 2013.
The man, who wished to be identified only as “D.B.” in court papers, decided to record the doctors’ post-operative instructions with his phone. But as he played the recording on the way home from the colonoscopy, he was startled to find that his phone had actually been recording during the entire procedure. What's more, after he fell asleep, the anesthesiologist viciously mocked him
, according to The Associated Press.
“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,” the doctor, Tiffany M. Ingham, told her
sedated patient, according to The Washington Post.
After noting that he had a rash on his genitalia, Ingham warned her assistant not to touch D.B. because she might get “some syphilis on your arm or something,” before adding, “It's probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you'll be all right,” The Post noted.
The insults continued during the procedure until the doctors proceeded to discuss how to mislead him and avoid him after he awoke.
“I’m going to mark ‘hemorrhoids’ even though we don’t see them and probably won’t,” Ingham said, calling him a “big wimp.”
“People are into their medical problems. They need to have medical problems," she said.
The Fairfax County jury awarded D.B. $500,000 after coming to the conclusion that they had “to give him something, just to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” juror Farid Khairzada said, according to the AP.
Dr. J.P. Abenstein, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, called Ingham’s behavior “very disappointing,” saying, “It's a prime example of behaviors that any anesthesiologist should absolutely not
engage in at any time,” according to CBS News. “We're taught very early on in medical school to treat all of our patients in a respectful, dignified manner.”
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