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O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5
5 Lessons From the Insulting Anesthesiologist
She was caught on a smartphone mocking her sedated patient.
I
f you don't have something nice to
say, don't say anything at all.
That's one lesson a Virginia anes-
thesiologist apparently forgot, after she
was unknowingly recorded berating a
patient who was undergoing a
colonoscopy.
According to court records, the male
patient had turned on his cell phone to
record some post-op instructions before
the procedure. It continued recording
during the procedure. After he was
sedated, anesthesiologist Tiffany M.
Ingham, MD, repeatedly insulted the
man, including saying she wanted to
punch him in the face, calling him a
"retard" and joking that he had "penis Ebola" (osmag.net/BWbk6S).
But Dr. Ingham didn't limit her remarks to insulting the patient. She
also threatened — and subsequently followed through with — an
intentional misdiagnosis, saying she was marking down that he had
hemorrhoids, even though that was false. As the patient returned
home, he listened to his recorded instructions from pre-op and dis-
covered the vicious remarks. He sued, and later won $450,000.
It doesn't seem like your classic med mal suit, but it is a good exam-
ple of what a modern case looks like. Recently, courts have been look-
ing much more closely at cases where patients claim emotional or
psychological injury, and often ruling in favor of them. Here are 5 big
lessons from this case.
M E D I C A L M A L P R A C T I C E
William Landess, CRNA, MS, JD
z LOOSE LIPS In one high-profile case, anesthesiologist
Tiffany M. Ingham, MD, was ordered by the courts to pay
more than $450,000 to a patient she belittled while he
was sedated.
