YouTube doctors may be charged
2008-04-16 21:25
Oliver Teves
Manila - A video posted on YouTube showing Philippine doctors laughing while removing an object from a patient may lead to charges against the surgeons and cost them their medical licences, officials said on Wednesday.
The unauthorised 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 the 15cm long 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 the crowd of nurses and doctors viewing the procedure.
It remains unclear who shot the video and who posted it on YouTube, but the person who posted it removed it from the website on Wednesday.
Patient plans to press charges
The video has angered the unidentified patient who plans to press charges, his lawyer Guiller Ceniza said on Wednesday.
The government-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Centre in the central city of Cebu, where the surgery took place, is conducting an investigation, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Dr Emmanuel Gines said more than 10 people were involved - including staff and medical and nursing students from a nearby operating room.
He said the hospital took videos of surgeries of peculiar cases, but only with the consent of the patient.
Dr Jose Sabili, president of the Philippine Medical Association, told The Associated Press on Wednesday the group will conduct an investigation if a formal complaint is filed and doctors found violating medical ethics could be suspended or expelled from the association, which would result in the suspension or termination of their state health insurance accreditation.
Suspend or revoke licences
The results of the investigation could also be used by the Professional Regulations Commission to suspend or revoke their licences, Sabili said. "I believe what they did was very blatant," he said.
Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said the Health Department will conduct a separate investigation.
The 39-year-old patient received surgery on January 3, three days after a New Year's drinking spree and a "one-night stand" with a male partner, Ceniza, the lawyer, told the AP.
He said his client was too drunk to remember how the body spray canister ended up in his body.
Ceniza said the man was determined to file charges, but will wait for the results of the hospital's investigation, expected later in the week.
- SAPA