Posted on 10/30/2021 6:46:06 AM PDT by billorites
A prominent Boston surgeon ditched a patient in an operating room to have lunch in his car — and then fell asleep and missed the surgery, state regulators found.
Dr. Tony Tannoury, head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center, admitted to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine to missing the emergency ankle surgery in November 2016, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
Tannoury, who took the patient into the operating room as the attending surgeon, then left the hospital and “bought something to eat in his parked car and fell asleep in the vehicle,” according to a consent order released Monday.
Tannoury, 54, didn’t come back until the next day and a chief resident ultimately performed the operation he was scheduled to oversee. He was fined $5,000 for undermining the “public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession,” according to the ruling.
He was also ordered to complete “professionalism” courses and review regulations for supervisors, according to the state board.
Boston Medical Center officials reported the incident to the state board, a hospital spokeswoman told the Globe, adding that they were “fully transparent” with the patient about who conducted the operation.
“The surgical outcome was positive,” BMC spokeswoman Jenny Eriksen Leary told the Globe.
The hospital also waived all fees in the operation, medical board records show. Dr. Tony Tannoury, head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center, admitted to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine to missing the emergency ankle surgery in November 2016Dr. Tony Tannoury, head of spine surgery at Boston Medical Center.Courtesy of Boston Medical Center
Tannoury has been the head of spinal surgery at the Boston University School of Medicine, which is affiliated with BMC, since 2006, according to his LinkedIn page. He did not return requests for comment, the Globe reported Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Rather obviously too fatigued to be operating, even if it’s only to remove warts. Why was he so tired? Too many hours on duty?
As for the surgeon...all I can say is "yikes!"
My guesses are drugs/booze, sickness or exhaustion (in that order). Maybe he smoked a joint and had the muchies?
Is an ankle a spine these days?
I am surprised that does not happen more with interns. Maybe it does. It sounds like some of them are on call for 48 hours straight.
He was probably passed out
have never understood why the medical profession does this. the human body can only take so much
pilots and truckers have a maximum but some dude cutting you up can have worked two days straight
I was rather wondering the same thing myself. 🤗
For the last 12 years interns, residents and fellows in ACGME accredited programs have strict work hour restrictions. When I was a resident is was call every third night or fourth night with 2-3 days off per month.
Residents and fellows now check out to attendings if there is a short staff of work in shifts which reduces continuity of care
Attending physicians have no work hour restrictions and when on call can be called or required to return to the hospital all night long. The result? I can see how a spine surgeon who may be on emergency room ortho call after completing a 12 hour case might need to eat snd my guess is if I’m Boston the hospital cafeteria may be closed for Covid restrictions as many are up north. He literally may have needed to go get something to eat and like any human exhausted fell asleep.
The disgusting statement by someone else that booze and drugs are involved demonstrates no fundamental understanding of anything. It would be a great pleasure to have anyone follow me or my colleagues on call around be up for 20 hours and have four hours of sleep interrupted by 20 phone calls and have to function the next day.
We learn to live with it. Because the public would scream if a physician were not immediately available.
Coming off Covid we are all exhausted, have been impugned to the point of not caring by several people who have no expertise in medicine but call us murderers, killers, deep statists and every other name in the book
As far as several of us are concerned it’s time for atlas to shrug from our standpoint and people can learn that the devotion to our art where we sacrifice personal life and family life for our oath to heal is not mandatory. Good luck when physicians get the guts to stand out and say no.
Not knowing I can’t say but I can speculate. Drugs?
It’s the spankle. Didn’t you study anatomy?
LOL, a $5000 fine? What this means is his next $25,000 operation will be billed at $30,000.
They're probably referring to ankylosing spondylitis, a spinal condition. Some reporter saw the term and thought it referred to the ankle. That's my best guess. And nobody ever went wrong assuming the stupidity of a reporter.
was in ER a few years ago needing emergency gall bladder surgery. Surgeon came in and said was scheduled but needed to sleep for a little bit because had been working 24 hours. I was TOTALLY in agreement that he rest before MY surgery
zzzzzZZZzZZzzZZZzzZZZ
Probably pure necessity. The number of people qualified to do complex surgeries is by nature limited. Yet when you gotta have one, you gotta have one.
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