As someone who currently works in health care in the US, I’m constantly being reminded to maintain patient confidentiality, making sure not to talk about any cases out in public, or mention any names or other personal information, for fear of losing my job and just out of common respect for the patients who are at the hospitals. As I’ve worked for the past few years as a transcriber, I’ve heard some shocking cases, and some rather hilarious cases, which obviously I can’t talk about.
So it comes as a bit of a shock to see that a nursing student from the Philippines posted a video on YouTube about a doctor removing a perfume canister from a patient’s… um, nether regions. In the video are tens of medical staff making homophobic remarks (the patient’s partner had sent him to the ER), and cheering and hollering when the canister was removed.
Not surprisingly, the Filipino government’s suspended two doctors and a nurse already for such gross disregard of the patient, and the patient himself is suing the medical center for about P6 million, and a well known Filipino gay rights group is calling for an investigation into revoking the licenses of the other nurses and doctors involved.
Regardless of how a medical professional feels about his or her patient’s lifestyle choices, such behavior is uncalled for, especially posting it on a site such as YouTube. I know if anyone in the hospitals I worked for tried to pull that, he or she would’ve been immediately fired. And if anything, it highlights the deeply ingrained homophobia that exists in the Philippines, especially outside of Manila, where queers are forced into specific jobs and niches in society because they’re otherwise seen as social deviants. While Manila’s queer scene is starting to blossom, it’s startling and sad to see that just a couple hundred miles away, a queer person can’t even be treated with respect from healthcare professionals–people that he should be able to trust the most.
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Moye wrote:
not only am i too scared to watch that video at work, that’s just utterly apalling. did the patient know he was being recorded?
Posted on 15-May-08 at 10:08 am | Permalink
Efren wrote:
No, the guy had no clue–which is why he’s suing…if I were him, I’d sue all the doctors and nurses too. That’s just completely unforgivable.
Posted on 15-May-08 at 11:44 am | Permalink
Moye wrote:
for some reason, during a day-long brain fart, i thought the patient was awake during the whole procedure. neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevermind.
Posted on 15-May-08 at 3:01 pm | Permalink
Jun wrote:
::speechless::
Posted on 15-May-08 at 5:30 pm | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Moye, I think I’d want to be really knocked out if I had to go through any surgery like that. Hopefully, I never will (knocks on wood).
Posted on 15-May-08 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
kay wrote:
i dunno.. i am of the opinion… that anyone who would do something so stupid should be mocked in some way. although having it broadcast on the internet is pretty harsh.
shoving things in the anus should be done with thought and care.
guess he learned his lesson.
Posted on 16-May-08 at 2:06 am | Permalink
Jason wrote:
I’m on board with kay, probably to a point that will offend most here’s sensibilities. Having foreign objects removed from one’s ass is just effing funny. I’m sorry, but it is.
Surely homosexuality has something to do with the mocking, but you will not convince me that it would be any different for a woman having a can of Axe removed from her bacon cave. They would still be laughing and it would still be hysterical. Okay, at least to me (and much of the YouTube community as well).
Is it marginally funnier that it was in a man’s anus? Sure, it is. But I don’t think that amounts to persecution.
Now, as far as privacy concerns, I’m totally on board. I think it’s deplorable and everyone responsible for the invasion of privacy should be punished.
But that aside, it IS funny.
Posted on 16-May-08 at 7:45 am | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Well, the issue isn’t so much (at least to me) isn’t whether the guy’s gay or not–it’s simply the fact that these idiots posted this stuff online where anybody could see it, without his permission, which goes completely against any ethics concerns or the Hippocratic Oath. I honestly don’t know what was going through these people’s heads to think that no one would notice this and report them to the appropriate officials. The fact that he was gay just makes it worse because the things that they were saying were completely disrepectful. I’m sure if a woman went through the same thing, they’d probably say things just as disgusting.
At the hospitals where I work, I’ve heard (and seen) things that are 10 times worse than what was posted, and all the gay men (including myself) who work there are the first ones to laugh and cringe. But we’re not so stupid enough to post it on a public forum and talk about it. It’s all about remembering that there’s a certain level of trust that’s expected of all health care professionals in the public eye. Privately, people can do whatever the hell they want, but if it gets out in the public arena, these people had better be prepared to face the consequences.
There’s always a general rule that I’ve adhered to–never put anything out in public that you don’t want your parents to find out about, whether that be on the internet or otherwise.
Posted on 16-May-08 at 8:02 am | Permalink
shan wrote:
Umm they should be wher eare our rights anyways???
Posted on 20-May-08 at 5:53 am | Permalink