Pioneering plastic surgeon attempts to do Zoom traffic court, surgery at same time
Aux Features Zoom
The Zoom-ification of our daily lives—i.e., the blending of the private and the personal, enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that jams every aspect of ourselves into a single fuzzily buffered video window—has created some unquestionably strange moments over the last year or so. That’s rarely truer than in the intersection between streaming video and the court system, as the self-seriousness of the American legal apparatus collides head-on with technology that allows participants to dial in from the beach, the bathroom, or the process of being transformed into a giant talking cat.
Still, though, we’ve rarely seen the “Oh, yeah, I can do both!” energy of Zoom court calls weaponized so thoroughly as in a recent video highlighted by Buzzfeed, in which a California plastic surgeon allegedly logged in to a traffic court hearing whilst…in the middle of surgery. Now, we do not know the inner mind of Dr. Scott Green, medical/legal pioneer, but it’s hard not to assume that he was trying to make some kind of point here about his very busy life—and the traffic infractions such tight scheduling might lead him to potentially commit—when he called into his hearing from the surgical theater, assuring court commissioner Gary Link that he was “available for trial” in the middle of a surgery. But, hey: The human mind is a labyrinth of motivations and secrets, and maybe it really was just an emergency.
Anyway, Link wasn’t having it; despite assertions that there was totally another surgeon on hand to help cut up whoever the hapless patient in this case was, the commissioner declared that “I do not feel comfortable for the welfare of a patient if you’re in the process of operating that I would put on a trial,” and moved to set up a new date. Per Buzzfeed, the Medical Board of California is apparently aware of the incident, and will be looking into whether Green violated any of its bylaws by attempting to merge these two particular chores.
25 Comments
An arrogant medic wrapped up in their own self importance…hope the patient’s ok!
You by-the-book, pencil pushing hospital administrators have no respect for this eccentric medical genius!
Oh dear God, just saw the post-surgery picture. He should sue!
Has there ever been a more punchable face? Really?
I’d say the officers who arrested him for the DUI showed remarkable restraint.
Giggedy
Yeah… pretty sure his patient did not okay this, which definitely goes against medical ethics. Not to mention, I’m sure whomever he has his malpractice insurance through is going to be interested in this.
Wasn’t there an Onion article to the tune of “Area Man Who Likens Self to TV’s House Fired”? (I searched for it, but to no avail.)
This man is a god
Uh, does “patient privacy” not mean anything to this shmuck?
I don’t much matters to Dr. Limpdick.
I don’t understand why people think just because they’re doing something remotely they don’t have to show any respect to the task at hand. I had a client call me this week for 45 minutes while he was also teaching a high school class. You should be suspended for that kind of brazen carelessness.
I know. Some people do stuff as important as host T.V. shows this way, for God’s sake!
Yeah, that’s disgusting.
Hopefully the court case wasn’t for an OWI (Operating While Intoxicated), cuz double yikes.
I’m 100% sure this is an episode of House.
I would use his disregard for his own patient’s health as a reason to find them guilty and make him pay his (I assume) multiple speeding tickets.
As a cardiothoracic surgeon who frequently finds himself in traffic court, I have to say, I applaud that man’s ability to be efficient with his time.
Username/comment synergy.
That’s right. We’re paychecks, not patients!
This guy and the hoverboard dentist can hang out together with all the free time they will have after getting their licenses suspended or revoked.
I work in mental health and even our patients wouldn’t try something like this.
Surgeons do a lot of shit that we as patients would assume they’re not going to be doing during surgery. They can have a lot of downtime, and they usually just methodically perform procedures while having fully unrelated conversations with other staff members. Never seen one have a Zoom meeting with a judge though, that’s a new one for me. But, I guess that’s one way to force the court to reschedule to a more favorable time for oneself.
“So, on the morning in question I got into my car … Oh, dear God, we’re losing him!”“No, I’m following along. You got into your car, and?”
Some malpractice laywer’s kid just got their college tuition paid.