A doctor has been placed on probation after an investigation. Photo / Unsplash
A doctor has been placed on probation after an investigation. Photo / Unsplash
A US doctor has been accused of leaving a patient screaming in pain after he neglected to wear his hearing aids during a procedure.
US media report Florida gastroenterologist Dr Ishwari Prasad has been fined by the Florida Department of Health after he began a colonoscopy on a patient who was not yet fully sedated.
Prasad was also found to have “improperly delegated” use of the scope during another colonoscopy, handing over the controls to a surgical tech, the Miami Herald reported.
On both occasions he was “not able to effectively communicate with the surgical staff” because of his hearing loss, the health department found.
They both took place on the same day, 5 June 2023, at the Ambulatory Surgery Centre in Tampa.
During the first procedure, Prasad reportedly handed over the controls of the scope during a colonoscopy to an “unlicensed individual to insert, advance or manipulate the colonoscope”.
The second part of the complaint refers to Prasad inserting the scope into the rectum of a patient who was not fully sedated.
Prasad “did not immediately stop the procedure when it became apparent that the patient was not fully sedated,” the Miami Herald reported.
The complaint states he failed to realise that the patient was not fully sedated because he had neglected to wear his hearing aids.
A patient had reportedly screamed in pain during a colonoscopy. Photo / Unsplash
An emergency restriction order (ERO) placed last September states that the patient began to yell, shouting he was in pain and “could feel everything”.
“Dr Prasad continued to move the scope while (the patient) continued to scream,” the ERO stated.
A problem with the patient’s IV line left him without adequate sedation and Prasad was told to wait.
“Dr Prasad continued to insert the scope despite being told to wait and began to thrust the scope into (the patient’s) rectum while (the patient) shouted in pain.
“The administrator for the ambulatory surgery centre was also in the procedure room and advised Dr Prasad that he needed to wait. Dr Prasad leaned over (the patient) and shouted ‘I know!’ to the administrator, yet continued to manipulate the scope.”
‘There’s no peace’
After news of Prasad’s censure emerged, another former patient came forward with her own horror story.
Ingrid Rafael told Fox13 she went to Prasad for a colonoscopy and endoscopy in 2018 - and woke up during the procedure.
“I just panicked because mostly I couldn’t move. And the pain, the pain is what really got to me,” Rafael said.
“I feel like I’m going to wake up from every single procedure I have done now, since there’s no peace.”
Dr Jay Wolfson, interim dean at USF College of Public Health, told Fox13 that inadequate sedation would lead to a “traumatic experience”.
“All of a sudden, you’re awake. You’ve been anesthetised, you’ve been sedated, you don’t know what’s happening. You’re feeling pain,” Wolfson said.
“In that operating room, the physician has to be able to be in touch with the patient physically or auditorily, and is equally, equally important with the staff. And he couldn’t do that,” Wolfson added.
The Florida Board of Medicine has now placed Prasad on probation and is no longer permitted to conduct any solo procedures until a state-approved doctor clears him as safe to continue.
He was also ordered to pay over $22,000 in fines and costs.
