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O U T PAT 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 | FEBRuARY 2015
Sexual Predators in the OR
From the criminal to the creepy, protect your patients from lewdness.
T
o a drug addict or a sexual predator, the operating
room must be like the candyland of opportunity, a per-
sonal playground, temptation at every turn. All you
need is some alone time with the drug vials and the anesthetized
patients to get your fix, to feed your habit and to get your jollies.
Of the taboo topic of sexual assault, you say Never in my OR!
But we're not just talking about the criminal acts you'll find in our editorial
archives — Surgical Tech at Military Center Faces Allegations of Fondling 3
Women, Nurse Charged with Sexually Assaulting Patients Under Anesthesia,
Surgeon Pleads Guilty to Sexually Assaulting Patients. We're also talking about
the subtle smuttiness that's silently condoned, like these creepy examples our
readers shared with us:
• The hands of the older male CRNA lingering a little too long while placing
EKG leads on young female patients.
• Pre-sedating patients who are having cosmetic procedures and leaving them
to lie naked on the OR table, surrounded by only male providers.
• An anesthesiologist French kissing a post-op patient as she's emerging from
anesthesia.
• A surgical tech taking pictures on his cell phone of an exposed patient.
• A surgeon exposing the breasts of a woman undergoing a laparoscopic
abdominoplasty. The circulator covered the patient's breasts with the gown, but
the surgeon pulled the gown up and said, "Leave them uncovered because I like
breasts."
We could go on, but you get the point. You might deserve to get punched in the
nose for such acts of perversion, but you won't get prosecuted. So who'll protect
your powerless, unconscious and vulnerable patients from the predators? You.
And here's how.
1. Remove the one thing that predators need: opportunity. Like syringe stealers, sex-
E D I T O R ' S PA G E
Dan O'Connor