Surgeon sued for giving patient temporary tattoo
Phantom Pain
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Would you be offended ?
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080716_Surgeon_sued_for_giving_anesthetized_patient_temporary_tattoo.html
Surgeon sued for giving anesthetized patient temporary tattoo
By Don Sapatkin
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a lawsuit filed yesterday, a Camden County woman accused her orthopedic surgeon of "rubbing a temporary tattoo of a red rose" on her belly while she was under anesthesia.
The patient discovered the tattoo below the panty line the next morning, when her husband was helping her get dressed to go home after the operation for a herniated disc, her attorney, Gregg A. Shivers, said in a phone interview yesterday.
"She was extremely emotionally upset by it," said Shivers. The suit, filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mateo in Camden County Superior Court, seeks punitive and compensatory damages from Steven Kirshner, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with offices in Marlton and Lumberton, both in Burlington County.
Kirshner does not deny placing the tattoo - and has left washable marks on patients before to improve their spirits, his lawyer, Robert Agre of Haddonfield, said last night. He said none has complained.
"What's offensive about this complaint is that it suggests something he did was intended to be prurient, and nothing could be further from the truth," said Agre. "It was intended just to make the patient feel better."
Nevertheless, said Art Caplan, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Medical Ethics, "you cannot do something like this even as a joke."
"If it's true," said Caplan, whose knowledge of the case was limited to a reporter's summary, "she's got a case."
Caplan recalled news reports of other cases where physicians left an inappropriate mark, such as a football logo, which had a legitimate purpose, such as indicating the placement of an organ for a future cut.
In a highly publicized case in 1999, a doctor in New York City went further by carving his initials into a patient's abdomen after delivering her baby by Caesarean section.
Mateo, the patient from Pennsauken, declined to comment last night.
Shivers, who practices in Cherry Hill, would describe his client only as a clerical worker in her mid-30s with a husband and young children.
Her suit does not criticize the operation's quality and names only the surgeon who performed it at Virtua Memorial Hospital Burlington County on April 28. The health system released a statement saying "the Mateo family has acknowledged that Virtua was in no way responsible for the incident."
In an announcement about the civil action, Shivers said that the hospital had "immediately conducted a diligent and responsible investigation" that found no witnesses. "The patient reports that the hospital has treated her with appropriate respect and professionalism as she has gone through this difficult experience," the statement concluded.
Part of his client's concern, Shivers said, was knowing what took place.
"We're assuming that it would have to have happened after surgery," he said, "because during surgery she would be on her stomach."
In addition to the lawsuit, Shivers said he mailed a related complaint to the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners yesterday.
The board said it had no record of past actions against Kirshner, and hadn't received the complaint in the mail.
The doctor's attorney, Agre, who had seen neither the board complaint nor the lawsuit, said the doctor had "never been accused of anything."
"Most of the patients are delighted by Dr. Kirshner's sense of humor," he said, adding that the 51-year-old surgeon who lives in Lumberton and did his medical training at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia is "renowned as a jovial guy and regarded as a doctor who has terrific relations with his patients and with his staff."
"He vigorously denies that any action of his was intended to offend the patient," Agre said, noting that the marks the surgeon has left on his patients "are like children's tattoos. Kids put them on themselves and they wash right off."
Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University who was read a summary of the lawsuit, speculated about why a surgeon who had performed an operation on the back would leave a red rose on his patient's belly.
"It is not part of the doctor-patient relationship in that case," said Farley, a former president of the American Psychological Association who studies risk-taking personalities and behavior.
"Unless you think you are Georgia O'Keeffe and you think people's bodies are your canvas," he said, "why would you take that risk?"
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080716_Surgeon_sued_for_giving_anesthetized_patient_temporary_tattoo.html
Surgeon sued for giving anesthetized patient temporary tattoo
By Don Sapatkin
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a lawsuit filed yesterday, a Camden County woman accused her orthopedic surgeon of "rubbing a temporary tattoo of a red rose" on her belly while she was under anesthesia.
The patient discovered the tattoo below the panty line the next morning, when her husband was helping her get dressed to go home after the operation for a herniated disc, her attorney, Gregg A. Shivers, said in a phone interview yesterday.
"She was extremely emotionally upset by it," said Shivers. The suit, filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mateo in Camden County Superior Court, seeks punitive and compensatory damages from Steven Kirshner, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon with offices in Marlton and Lumberton, both in Burlington County.
Kirshner does not deny placing the tattoo - and has left washable marks on patients before to improve their spirits, his lawyer, Robert Agre of Haddonfield, said last night. He said none has complained.
"What's offensive about this complaint is that it suggests something he did was intended to be prurient, and nothing could be further from the truth," said Agre. "It was intended just to make the patient feel better."
Nevertheless, said Art Caplan, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Medical Ethics, "you cannot do something like this even as a joke."
"If it's true," said Caplan, whose knowledge of the case was limited to a reporter's summary, "she's got a case."
Caplan recalled news reports of other cases where physicians left an inappropriate mark, such as a football logo, which had a legitimate purpose, such as indicating the placement of an organ for a future cut.
In a highly publicized case in 1999, a doctor in New York City went further by carving his initials into a patient's abdomen after delivering her baby by Caesarean section.
Mateo, the patient from Pennsauken, declined to comment last night.
Shivers, who practices in Cherry Hill, would describe his client only as a clerical worker in her mid-30s with a husband and young children.
Her suit does not criticize the operation's quality and names only the surgeon who performed it at Virtua Memorial Hospital Burlington County on April 28. The health system released a statement saying "the Mateo family has acknowledged that Virtua was in no way responsible for the incident."
In an announcement about the civil action, Shivers said that the hospital had "immediately conducted a diligent and responsible investigation" that found no witnesses. "The patient reports that the hospital has treated her with appropriate respect and professionalism as she has gone through this difficult experience," the statement concluded.
Part of his client's concern, Shivers said, was knowing what took place.
"We're assuming that it would have to have happened after surgery," he said, "because during surgery she would be on her stomach."
In addition to the lawsuit, Shivers said he mailed a related complaint to the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners yesterday.
The board said it had no record of past actions against Kirshner, and hadn't received the complaint in the mail.
The doctor's attorney, Agre, who had seen neither the board complaint nor the lawsuit, said the doctor had "never been accused of anything."
"Most of the patients are delighted by Dr. Kirshner's sense of humor," he said, adding that the 51-year-old surgeon who lives in Lumberton and did his medical training at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia is "renowned as a jovial guy and regarded as a doctor who has terrific relations with his patients and with his staff."
"He vigorously denies that any action of his was intended to offend the patient," Agre said, noting that the marks the surgeon has left on his patients "are like children's tattoos. Kids put them on themselves and they wash right off."
Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University who was read a summary of the lawsuit, speculated about why a surgeon who had performed an operation on the back would leave a red rose on his patient's belly.
"It is not part of the doctor-patient relationship in that case," said Farley, a former president of the American Psychological Association who studies risk-taking personalities and behavior.
"Unless you think you are Georgia O'Keeffe and you think people's bodies are your canvas," he said, "why would you take that risk?"
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The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
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Keep her away from any Cracker Jack boxes. God forbid she ends up with a temporary tattoo on her hand after reaching in a box of caramel popcorn goodness.
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Yeah, I think waking up and finding a temporary tattoo would be funny...but the content and location make me question the intentions. That would make me very uncomfortable.
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suing is just ridiculous. he operated on her back - she was prolly naked...it was prolly a post- op visit and quickly stuck it on. big deal. is she upset because he saw her nekkid too?? jeesh get some humor.
it would have been funny if it was on her butt cheek too...but I can see some puritans getting all up in arms over that...
dammit - I love you!!
well it said "below the panty line" but who knows what that means, her underwear could come up to her belly button, I'm wearing some like that at the moment.
if it's not like in a really creepy location, then I think it's really cute gesture!
haha THAT WOULD BE AWKWARD
Personally I would have found it disturbing to find it on me but I would not have sued the guy. I think she over reacted. He could have just handed her the tat after she woke up and let her decide what to do with it.
"It washese off"
instead of don;t do it again, or, I'm never going back there again....
It's....."I still don't care I'm suing you..."
I wish these types of people that think like this would just be exterminated quietly in freak accidents...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
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I agree.
I don't want to know that my surgeon is unleashing his creative and humorous side, whilst I am under anaesthetic and under his care. I want to know that he is professional, competent, trustworthy and respectful and that he is performing the agreed task on my body whilst in a highly vunerable state, exactly as he had described before I went under.
For many people the issue of trust between a doctor and patient, particularly in surgical situations is a very tentative one at best. Regardless of the intent in this situation it would not fill me with confidence in the doctor but give a sense of violation. I wouldn't sue, because in this case I think it's a complete waste of time and energy but I most certainly would want a complete investigation and overhaul of the practice and for the doctor to be made understand why it's not appropriate.
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The guy putting the tattoo on you on the boardwalk "It wont wash off right away."
Liar !! One trip to the ocean and BAM ! Gone
Im still scarred from that
Anyway lawyers mess everything up...you didn't see me sue when they guy said it wasn't going to wash off did you ?
The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
True, but I do think it matters whether it's harmless or not. These things wash right off. She didn't get to choose but she can just wash it off, the 'damage' would be gone is seconds.
Why sue? I think she saw an easy way to get some money.
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this is what's freaky about it..... it's the fact that after the surgery, the doctor deliberately undressed her (to some degree) while she was asleep, to expose an area that would not have been exposed during the surgery, in order to place the tattoo....
if you're doing back sugery, leave a temp tatoo on her BACK, if you find it so funny.....
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Exactly...at least leave a tramp stamp
The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers