"Dancing Doc" Video....Just When You Think You've Seen It All...
I am sure by now most of you have seen the "dancing doc" youtube video of a physician and her surgical staff dancing over an unconscious patient's exposed body....unfortunately there is more to the story. Read on....
To all of us health professionals (professionals being the key word here), this one will leave you speechless. I am sure by now many of you have seen the viral YouTube video of an Atlanta dermatologist dancing and twerking with her staff over an unconscious and exposed patient. In the video Dr. Windell Davis-Boutte and her staff lip sync and dance pointing to the patient's exposed buttocks to a song about "big bottoms". During another video....yes I said another, as there are over 20 videos posted on her YouTube practice page, she cuts into the patients' flesh on cue to the song lyrics about cutting. She posts these as "marketing videos" for her Atlanta area practice.
Dr. Boutte is board certified in dermatology but also performs plastic surgery and general surgery neither of which she is board certified in. Her practice web page boasts rave reviews from hundreds of her patients over her 22 years in practice. The web page states that she specializes in Brazilian Butt Lifts and Smart Liposuction. Her surgeries are performed at an outpatient "full-service medical spa and cosmetic surgery center" that is not licensed or accredited.
If you type Dr. Windell Boutte's name into the Google tab you will come up with a plethora of hits from her videos to the growing number of malpractice lawsuits cited against her for a variety of reasons. She has settled at least 5 malpractice lawsuits and has 4 more pending. At Dr. Boutte's surgery center, no general anesthesia is used. One of the settlements is with a patient, who was a nurse, that now suffers permanent brain damage and requires round the clock care. This patient arrested on the surgical table after 8 hours of surgery under a cocktail of sedative medications including Propofol. Within the lawsuits, she is cited for not following "board guidelines for office-based surgeries that define you to report any incident that leads to a patient's death or to a hospital".
So where do we even begin to have a conversation about this? One of my questions would be how do 20 plus of these videos exist and who are the patients? Do the patients have knowledge or give consent to being on camera and presented to the world as the subject of Dr. Boutte's "marketing"? If patients have not consented, then how has she been able to continue not only making these videos but practicing medicine as well? Should patients in the videos be made aware that they unknowingly were filmed and that the videos were used as a marketing tactic? The HIPAA rights clearly were violated unless the patient waived these rights. Would you want to know if it were you?
My next question is who are the staff that are participating in this behavior? Have none of the staff members found this unethical or just plain wrong? Has no one spoken up on the patient's behalf? Should they be subjected to punishment as well? Are there no other physicians that practice in the same group that are aware of these videos or malpractice lawsuits and voice objection? Should they turn her into to governing bodies?
How did we get here? A few months ago the "funky flu" video filmed by a nurse in Florida went viral. In it, the emergency room nurse gave several informational facts and instructions on how to keep the flu at bay. The nurse was turned in to the board of nursing and was under a great deal of scrutiny over her "sarcastic tone". Somehow, these videos from Dr. Boutte have taken a while to reach the public's "spotlight". Why is that I wonder?
My next thought is that surgeons frequently use music as a background distraction during surgery. Each surgeon has his/ her own preference of music style. At what point does the line get crossed when you trust your physician and team to care for you at your most vulnerable moments? How much "goofing and fun" is acceptable when you are the professionals? I would love to hear your opinions and thoughts on this matter and the issues surrounding it. Does anyone have any similar experiences? What repercussions should Dr. Boutte face if any?
