A man went in for a colonoscopy back in 2013, not expecting that his doctors would make fun of him the whole time. However, that’s exactly what happened, as the anesthesiologist began telling jokes and making mocking comments about him, even going so far as to make joke’s about the man’s masculinity.
Now, a jury has taken the man’s side, and he has been awarded half a million dollars as a result.
The mocking behavior happened while the man was unconscious, under the influence of the medication. He wouldn’t even have known that it happened, but he turned on a recording device for the prep phase of the operation and forgot to turn it off. It ran the whole time.
When he listened to it after he left the office, the man was shocked to hear all of the comments that were being made at his expense. It appeared that almost the entire team participated in this behavior, with one person saying the man needed to be punched in the face.
The office did attempt to get the recording tossed out of court, even though it is legal to record a conversation that one is involved in without notifying the other person. They said that, since the man was not awake, he was not meant to be part of that conversation in the first place and did not have any right to record it. However, the judge did not agree.
This case really shows just how strange some medical malpractice cases can be, so you must know your rights to compensation in Connecticut if you’ve been wronged in any way.
Source: ctpost.com, “Jury awards patient $500K after anesthesiologist mocked him,” June 24, 2015
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