An anonymous essay published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week reveals shocking behavior inside the operating room.
The essay describes in graphic detail what happened to two female patients while they were asleep in the operating room, and the stories are appalling.
The first case details a male doctor making a sexually inappropriate comment while prepping a woman for a vaginal hysterectomy.
“I bet she’s enjoying this,” the surgeon allegedly said.
In the second case, an obstetrician who had just finished saving the life of a Hispanic patient who had begun bleeding after giving birth danced around the still sedated woman while singing a Mexican folk song.
In both instances, the medical students who observed the horrifying behavior were “deeply disturbed,” reports The New York Times. However, reluctant to confront their supervisors, the students played along and pretended to be amused.
A letter accompanied the essay, in which the editorial team discusses their decision to publish the piece. They write that while everyone agreed the stories were “disgusting and scandalous,” they argued over whether to publish the essay, according to The Washington Post.
“The discussion was so impassioned and opinions so disparate that we needed a ‘time-out,’ wrote Editor-in-chief Christine Laine.
The discussion was so impassioned and opinions so disparate that we needed a ‘time-out’.
In the end, the decision to publish the essay was made in order to “expose medicine’s dark underbelly.”
“The story is an opportunity to see what this behavior looks like to others and starkly shows that it is anything but funny,” Laine and her deputies wrote.
It is our hope that the essay will gnaw on the consciences of readers who may recall any instance of their own repugnant behavior. The story is an opportunity to see what this behavior looks like to others and starkly shows that it is anything but funny.
The author – only identified as a physician affiliated with a medical school – originally submitted the essay with his name on the byline. The journal chose to publish it anonymously to protect those identified in the stories, especially the patients.
Just last year, several operating room doctors in China were fired for taking selfies while performing surgery on a patient.
