The very first sentence on Boston Medical Center's website says, We are here for you. But, ironically, that wasn't the case for an emergency patient about to receive ankle surgery in 2016. The surgeon assigned to oversee the procedure was there when he escorted the patient into the operating room, but then he left to eat — and snooze — in his parked car, missing the entire rest of the day and night.
Five years later, Dr. Tony Tannoury is "facing a $5,000 fine and will be required to complete professional development courses after being reprimanded by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine," according to USA Today.
From Boston.com:
Dr. Tony Tannoury, 54, admitted that he woke up in his car that November night in 2016, called the teaching hospital and was told that a chief resident had performed the operation he was supposed to oversee, according to a consent order released Monday by the Board of Registration in Medicine. Tannoury didn't return to the hospital until the following day.
In a recent ruling, the state Board of Registration in Medicine concluded that Tannoury, who was the attending surgeon for orthopedic trauma emergencies that night and had escorted the patient with the resident into the operating room, had "engaged in conduct that undermines the public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession."
With some of longest hours of all professions, you can't blame an exhausted surgeon for succumbing to a nap once in a while. Luckily it happened in his car and not in the middle of an OR procedure.
