A doctor in Australia found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
A Queensland surgeon was reprimanded and slapped with a $10,000 fine for snapping a photo of a coma patient’s penis, which featured a swastika tattoo, and then sharing it in a WhatsApp group chat, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The tattooed patient required orthopedic surgery in April 2019 after a pipe bomb he was reportedly making at home exploded in his hands.
He was intubated and placed in a medically induced coma while recovering in intensive care when the surgeon noticed the hateful tattoo.
He then took matters into his own hands and shared a picture of the patient’s apparently antisemitic private parts in a group chat with their coworkers, the Herald reported.
The scandal flew under the radar until the Office of the Health Ombudsman received a tip about the bizarre ordeal in 2020. The department launched an investigation and found that the surgeon’s actions had “no clinical or medical purpose.”
The tribunal overseeing the controversy recognized that the surgeon had expressed regret for the private photo sharing, but the doc was still fined a whopping 10 grand and reprimanded.
“The patient was unconscious and particularly vulnerable,” the tribunal said.
It is unclear what happened to the patient following the lengthy drama and why he was making a pipe bomb in his home in the first place.
