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Medical staff face penalties over video

A Philippine hospital recommended penalties yesterday, including possible dismissal, for three doctors and a nurse who conducted a rowdy operation on a patient that was videotaped and posted on YouTube.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III ordered an investigation.

The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu, where the operation to remove an object from the patient’s rectum took place on Jan. 3, recommended filing administrative cases against the four personnel, with penalties ranging from reprimands to dismissals for violating a code of conduct and ethical standards.

The nearly three-minute video of a noisy operating room shows doctors and nurses laughing, giggling and cheering. At one point, a hand appears with a cellphone camera taking a close-up picture of the surgery.

As a doctor gingerly pulls out a 15cm spray canister from the male patient’s rectum, someone shouts, “Baby out!” amid loud cheers.

The doctor then removes the canister cap and sprays the contents toward a crowd of nurses and doctors viewing the procedure.

The 39-year-old patient, who remains unidentified, plans next week to file a complaint seeking the revocation of the licenses of those responsible and a civil suit for damages, his lawyer, Guiller Ceniza, said.
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