An anonymous essay published by the Annals of Internal Medicine on the sexually abusive behavior of doctors in the operating room, opens the door to an honest conversation about this uncommon, yet horrifying behavior.
How do doctors behave when you’re unconscious?
The essay, though disgusting in tone, talks about a relationship dynamic that we are a part of everyday⎯the boss and the subordinate. Yet, what is so chilling about the account is that it involves doctors, with whom we attach an incredible amount of trust and respect. The essay describes a classroom setting for medical students in a medical humanities class. The anonymous author is the teacher engaging in an interactive session with the students about the virtues of forgiveness.
The author poses a specific question to the class⎯is there someone from their clinical experience that they would want to forgive? Something that they need to forgive or haven’t been able to forgive yet? To this, a student named David (all the names in the essay are pseudonyms) recounted a disturbing tale during his experience scrubbing in for a vaginal hysterectomy. While prepping the patient for the procedure by cleansing the genital area, David’s attending remarked, “I bet she’s enjoying this”, with a laugh and a wink. David recounted how disgusted yet helpless he felt because he had to join in on his boss’s laughter.
The anonymous author spills the beans on sexual abuse in the operating room
The anonymous essay goes on to talk about the author’s own experience akin to the one David had. In the third year of medical school, the author was on Ob/Gyn duty, and had just helped deliver Mrs. Lopez’s baby. However, soon after the delivery, a complication called the uterine atony, caused her to bleed profusely. The resident on the case, Dr. Canby, called for the anesthesiologist for putting the patient under. He then pushed his fist into the vagina to the uterus, to arrest the bleeding. Once the situation was under control, the resident started singing “La Cucaracha” and dancing to his own tunes, all the while his hand still deep inside the patient’s vagina. The author regretfully remembers shuffling his feet and laughing along with the resident, until the anesthesiologist ended their act of perversion by yelling “Knock it off, assholes!”
The publication of this essay was a difficult decision, editors say
The editors went through a grueling process of discussions before they decided to publish the anonymous essay. They eventually reached a consensus that the essay needed to see the light of day for precisely the same reasons that it shouldn’t ⎯the dark, lurid nature and the possible panic it could create amongst patients. The editors believe that even though sexual abuse by doctors is an extremely rare occurrence, publishing whistle-blower essays such as this would send a message: the medical community does not tolerate deviant behavior from its fellow members.
