It takes an awful amount to drag people away from their smartphones these days. Threats of making the first person who answers theirs at the dinner table pay are all good – but you know inside everyone is itching to get their fingers tapping away. Face to face human interaction, sies.

Nowadays people are even taking their smartphones into the operating theatre with them. Although, if it’s going to net me a cool $500 000 then I feel you should give me some wiggle room. One patient in Virginia underwent a colonoscopy back in 2013, recording the pre-op so he could listen to the instructions his doctor had given him.

It was only later when he listened to the recording and was shocked by what he heard. Sky News reports:

…it revealed medics saying they wanted to punch him, claiming he had syphilis and calling him a “retard”.

…anaesthesiologist Tiffany Ingham, 42, can be heard saying: “After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op, I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit.”

A medical assistant points out the man has a rash, and Ms Ingham warned her not to touch it because she could get “some syphilis on your arm or something”, adding: “It’s probably tuberculosis in the penis, so you’ll be all right.”

Listening to the recording turned out to be very emotionally distressing for the patient, so much so in fact that he sued and was awarded $500 000 – $100 000 for defamation, $200 000 for medical malpractice and $200 000 in punitive damages.

Not to sound like a pessimist but I’m guessing that patient knew what he was in for when he hit the ‘record’ button. These doctors don’t exactly sound like a pleasant bunch but where there’s smoke there’s often fire…

You can listen to the recording below.

[source:sky]