my life, my pace

No shit.  Being a doctor is stressful.  And it's especially stressful when you screw up.  But this is just ridiculous.  Some urologist in Romania got pissed that he screwed up an operation to fix a testicular malformation and chopped off the patient's penis and then diced it up like an onion?!  That's just ridiculous!  What was he thinking?!  No penis —> patient won't know that I screwed up his urethra?

And then the audacity to blame his actions on stress from personal matters?!  We ALL have personal matters that stress us out.  But that doesn't make it okay to lop off penises!  Ever learn anger management?  Stress management?  Or for that matter, take the Hippocratic Oath?!  That's the thing about being doctors—we have to be invincible.  Our house could be burning down, our entire family murdered, and if we're dumb enough to still go to work and see patients, we have to be on.  Because being off could cost lives.  And that's what happened here.  Sure, this guy didn't die, but he's probably wishing he did.  If this doctor was so stressed out, why didn't he take a day off?  Better than harming a patient.

Not only is this whole thing just messed up beyond words, but other doctors are complaining that his having to pay the damages to the patient sets a bad precedent?!  It's not that he made a mistake here that is common to such surgery.  He chopped off a man's penis!!!  I understand that making the doctor pay the damages in malpractice cases is probably a bad thing.  But this is a unique situation.  The malpractice in this case is from the doctor doing something that he knew was harmful on purpose (hiding being the "temporary lapse of judgment due to personal reasons" excuse is just BS), not from an understandable error.  I can't believe other doctors are saying that this particular judgment will cause doctors to pick only cases where they know they won't screw up to avoid paying damages in the event they do screw up.  Uh, yeah, because chopping off a man's penis is screwing up.  Surgery is inherently risky.  But one of those risks is not going in with a penis and coming out without one (unless of course, you happen to have flesh-eating bacteria on your penis that requires amputation).  The gray area is when doctors get sued for complications that are part of the risks of a normal operation, not when they arbitrarily take out their frustrations by mutilating their patients. 

I say make this doctor pay.  In fact, I'm surprised he's only being forced to pay such a small sum in comparison to the suffering this patient will now endure for the rest of his life.  And take away his license too.  Someone who cannot separate personal stress from work has no right to be a doctor.

Or they should add another line to the consent form that says: A rare, but potentially serious complication of this operation is your surgeon freaking out and mutilating you.

Now please sign here to acknowledge that you understand these risks and consent to this operation.

Right. 

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