A plastic surgeon apologized for a controversial Facebook post on Sunday last week, in which he ridiculed a patient who damaged his testicles while taking a bath.
A picture of the injury was captioned: “Patient said that he accidentally damaged his skin while washing his testicles with a towel while having a bath, and sought treatment at an emergency room (ER) ... suffering acute pain (level 8 to 10).”
The picture was posted by Wang Shu-wei (王樹偉), a former Taipei Tzu Chi General Hospital physician and an author, on his fanpage on Sunday last week.
Beside the picture, Wang wrote: “I have nothing more to say, but to laugh out loud. I really want to know what type of flannel he used to wash himself; did he accidentally use a scouring pad... scrubbing so hard that he scraped his testicles, which look to be ‘thin-shelled fragile eggs.’”
Emergency rooms should be for emergency medical treatment and scraped testicles can heal on their own, he wrote.
People should cherish the nation’s precious medical resources, he wrote, adding: “Feel free to repost so more people can have a laugh.”
Wang’s post received mixed responses, with some commenters seeing the funny side, while others criticized Wang, saying that making fun of the patient shows Wang’s “lack of empathy” and “medical ethics.”
Wang said his post was intended to remind people not to waste medical resources or regard emergency rooms as outpatient clinics.
“I have saved pictures as evidence and reserve the right to take the necessary legal action,” against those who had publicly defamed me without offering any proof, he wrote.
Wang later deleted the controversial posts and on Monday afternoon wrote that he was grateful for everyone’s suggestions.
“I understand that I made an improper statement, and I want to apologize to the patient and everyone else,” he wrote.
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