Man records what his surgical team said about him while he was sedated

Oh dear, oh dear:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/anesthesiologist-trashes-sedated-patient-jury-orders-her-to-pay-500000/2015/06/23/cae05c00-18f3-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html

Yikes. I take back everything I ever said about everyone who fell unconscious at my old house parties.

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

marylago said:

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

Me either. They had someone come in and check me for jewelry and loose fillings 3 times before my last surgery.

I was thinking about that as well ...

marylago said:

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

Wtf is wrong with people

GGartrell said:

marylago said:

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

Me either. They had someone come in and check me for jewelry and loose fillings 3 times before my last surgery.

It was in his pants pocket. I don't think it's unusual for patient belongings to be placed in a bag under the stretcher for simple procedures like a colonoscopy. He turned on the audio recorder before the procedure to record the post-procedure instructions and forgot to turn it off.

Operating room banter is notorious when the patient is out.

I remember when the movie MASH came out. I was horrified how the surgical team in the movie joked through surgery. My mother, who had been an RN when she was young, laughed, and talked about how much joking went on during surgery. However, in this instance they were so insulting to this patient. Saying that his rash was syphilis, and writing down that he had hemorrhoids on his chart when he didn't. And then planning to lie to him afterward. Truly despicable!!!

The insults, while childish, are just human nature.

The falsifying of his medical chart though, is a serious charge. Even if it is just "hemorrhoids" that they wrote in there as a joke, it is still unethical and illegal.

mrincredible said:

GGartrell said:

marylago said:

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

Me either. They had someone come in and check me for jewelry and loose fillings 3 times before my last surgery.

It was in his pants pocket. I don't think it's unusual for patient belongings to be placed in a bag under the stretcher for simple procedures like a colonoscopy. He turned on the audio recorder before the procedure to record the post-procedure instructions and forgot to turn it off.

A friend of mine just had his colonoscopy done last week and I asked him about this. He told me his clothes were placed in a plastic bag with his belongings and put under the gurney and wheeled into the procedure room.

There are so many cases where technology seems to drag us in to having opinions about issues we really don't need to even know about. This seems to be a case of what you don't know won't hurt you and you would be better off not knowing about.

Of course, there are other cases where recording technology exposes real problems such as a teacher in New Jersey a couple of years ago who was verbally abusive in his dealings with a special needs student.

I didn't need technology to reafffirm that people are capable of being jerks; but whatever the method involved, it remains disheartening, especially when once again it involves people we like to imagine are better. Education is only worth what you do with it.

SouthernBaron said:
I didn't need technology to reafffirm that people are capable of being jerks; but whatever the method involved, it remains disheartening, especially when once again it involves people we like to imagine are better. Education is only worth what you do with it.

God help us if we ever develop technology that can read people's minds.

tjohn, the technology exists, and we can't uninvent it. It is now ubiquitous, which raises standards of behavior. Now we have to speak respectfully of those not present. And I see that as a good thing. In fact, wasn't that a societal rule all along? Maybe we forgot it, and I'm glad that it might come back in as a result of this. We should assume we are being heard wherever we are, when we are outside our homes.

Tom_Reingold said:
tjohn, the technology exists, and we can't uninvent it. It is now ubiquitous, which raises standards of behavior. Now we have to speak respectfully of those not present. And I see that as a good thing. In fact, wasn't that a societal rule all along? Maybe we forgot it, and I'm glad that it might come back in as a result of this. We should assume we are being heard wherever we are, when we are outside our homes.

This would be what you call the optimists view of technology.

ellenlynn said:

mrincredible said:

GGartrell said:

marylago said:

Unbelievable. But I can't believe they let him take his cell phone into the operating room.

Me either. They had someone come in and check me for jewelry and loose fillings 3 times before my last surgery.

It was in his pants pocket. I don't think it's unusual for patient belongings to be placed in a bag under the stretcher for simple procedures like a colonoscopy. He turned on the audio recorder before the procedure to record the post-procedure instructions and forgot to turn it off.

A friend of mine just had his colonoscopy done last week and I asked him about this. He told me his clothes were placed in a plastic bag with his belongings and put under the gurney and wheeled into the procedure room.

They did the same for me a couple months ago, in the past my personal belongings were always locked up and not brought with me. It's possible the protocol is different at each facility.

Also, the nurses who were prepping me for my colonoscopy in the procedure room were texting with their families members; maybe this is the norm, as last month, the resident working with my GI doctor was responding to personals text messages during my consultation.

This is beginning to remind me of arturosfan's site about the cameras around the duck pond... Only it's the flip side.

Did the medical professionals have the right to expect they were not being recorded while they said rather horrible, thoroughly unprofessional things about a patient, and while they put a bogus diagnosis on his chart? I can't really wrap my head around that. They were acting as if they were eight-year-olds on the playground.

A patient who is under anesthesia is incredibly vulnerable. They put their lives in the hands of those medical professionals, and to me, the least they should be able to expect under those conditions is a modicum of RESPECT. Even if they aren't conscious to witness it.

Sad. Just sad.

tjohn said:

Tom_Reingold said:
tjohn, the technology exists, and we can't uninvent it. It is now ubiquitous, which raises standards of behavior. Now we have to speak respectfully of those not present. And I see that as a good thing. In fact, wasn't that a societal rule all along? Maybe we forgot it, and I'm glad that it might come back in as a result of this. We should assume we are being heard wherever we are, when we are outside our homes.

This would be what you call the optimists view of technology.

It may be wildly optimistic of me to think that people will behave better now that they know that they are likely to be recorded. But whatever I say and you record is fair game for you to accuse me.

PeggyC said:

A patient who is under anesthesia is incredibly vulnerable. They put their lives in the hands of those medical professionals, and to me, the least they should be able to expect under those conditions is a modicum of RESPECT. Even if they aren't conscious to witness it.

Agree! And if technology is needed to bring that respect, then fine. Just like body cameras and cell phones will hopefully limit what police officers do. The vulnerable - unconscious patients, young minority men - shouldn't be entirely at the mercy of the more powerful.

Tom_Reingold said:

It may be wildly optimistic of me to think that people will behave better now that they know that they are likely to be recorded.

I'm guessing you haven't watched much reality-TV... where they know they are being recorded and also know it's going to be broadcast...

Humans seem relatively uninfluenced by the potential of future consequences.

Reality TV is entirely fake.

Tom_Reingold said:

tjohn said:

Tom_Reingold said:
tjohn, the technology exists, and we can't uninvent it. It is now ubiquitous, which raises standards of behavior. Now we have to speak respectfully of those not present. And I see that as a good thing. In fact, wasn't that a societal rule all along? Maybe we forgot it, and I'm glad that it might come back in as a result of this. We should assume we are being heard wherever we are, when we are outside our homes.

This would be what you call the optimists view of technology.

It may be wildly optimistic of me to think that people will behave better now that they know that they are likely to be recorded. But whatever I say and you record is fair game for you to accuse me.

Not really. If you and I are having drinks at a bar, you should expect your comments to me to be private.

sprout said:

Tom_Reingold said:

It may be wildly optimistic of me to think that people will behave better now that they know that they are likely to be recorded.

I'm guessing you haven't watched much reality-TV... where they know they are being recorded and also know it's going to be broadcast...
Humans seem relatively uninfluenced by the potential of future consequences.

If I thought the crazy people who are involved in the reality television insanity were representative of the bulk of the American population, I would have to leave the country. Seriously, those people are NOT like you and me.

BTW, is anyone else watching the new show "UnReal"? Total send-up of reality television, with behind-the-scenes looks at the manipulation that I'm sure is actually going on back there.

The reporter certainly went beyond the call of duty in trying to get a quote from the anesthesiologist as she moved from job to job, state to state, always staying one step ahead of that unwelcome phone call.

“Round and round we go. Wheel of annoying patients we go. Where it’ll land, nobody knows,” [anesthesiologist Tiffany] Ingham reportedly said."

"Ingham then mocked the man for attending Mary Washington College, once an all-women’s school, and wondered aloud whether her patient was gay, the suit states."

You are freaking hhilarious, Dr. Tiffany. Still laughing now?

I still don't understand how he gets $500k out of this. Of course they shouldn't have said that, but what are his damages?

It's punitive damages. The court is telling surgeons not to insult people while they falsify their medical records.

I get the impression that the patient was a real jerk to deal with in pre-op so the banter and the hemorrhoids (aka he was a pain in the a**) were in response to that. I don't think the recording was made by mistake. I get the feeling from the recording, that things just before putting him under were really ugly and they are decompressing from that situation. If you have ever worked with people as part of your job, I am sure you have done this. The false medical record is inexcusable, and I have issue with them saying things while the patient was in the room, but what if he had just walked out the door and they were saying these things.

unixiscool said:
I get the impression that the patient was a real jerk to deal with in pre-op so the banter and the hemorrhoids (aka he was a pain in the a**) were in response to that. I don't think the recording was made by mistake. I get the feeling from the recording, that things just before putting him under were really ugly and they are decompressing from that situation. If you have ever worked with people as part of your job, I am sure you have done this. The false medical record is inexcusable, and I have issue with them saying things while the patient was in the room, but what if he had just walked out the door and they were saying these things.

I didn't get the impression that the patient was a jerk. Just that he was afraid. And the anesthesiologist mocked him for being afraid.