Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly (August 17, 2015) reports that a Fairfax County Circuit Court jury recently awarded a plaintiff $500,000.00 for defamation per se, medical malpractice, and punitive damages after an anesthesiologist ridiculed and made false statements about the plaintiff while he was sedated for a colonoscopy.
Photo courtesy Splitshire
The inappropriate comments were inadvertently recorded by the patient’s cell phone that had been programmed to record the doctor’s post-procedure findings and instructions. Even the defendant’s expert witness admitted on the stand that the anesthesiologist violated the appropriate standard of care.
As the old children’s Sunday School song says, “be careful little mouth what you say!”
