Doctor Disciplined Over Colonoscopy Patient Screams

It sounds nightmarish: A doctor in Florida failed to wear his hearing aids and thus could not hear his colonoscopy patient screaming in pain, according to a medical complaint cited by USA Today. Gastroenterologist Dr. Ishwari Prasad has been placed on probation by the state for his actions at the Tampa Ambulatory Surgery Center in June of last year. The patient wasn't properly sedated when Prasad began inserting the scope, and he "began to yell and shouted that he was in pain and could still feel everything," according to the medical complaint, per the Miami Herald.

When a hospital administrator in the room told Prasad he had to wait, Prasad leaned over the patient and shouted, "I know!" but continued to manipulate the scope, according to the complaint. Prasad is hearing-impaired and wears hearing aids to comply with "minimum prevailing professionals standard of care," the complaint says. The physician, who has been licensed since 1990, also is accused of having a surgical tech perform tasks only the doctor should have been doing on a second colonoscopy patient that day. The complaint says Prasad may not have been wearing his hearing aids during both procedures, making it all but impossible for his surgical team to communicate with him. (More doctors stories.)