Man arrives at hospital with “an object lodged in his rectum,” X-rays taken (object turns out to be sex toy designed for rectum-lodging that somehow failed to dislodge), two nurses take cell phone pictures of X-rays pictures showing object-lodged rectum, one nurse allegedly posts cell phone pictures to Facebook, both nurses fired, Walworth County, Wisconsin, officials notify FBI in an attempt to make a federal case out of this incident.

27 replies on “Our Modern World”

  3. A friend of mine told me that when she was in med school there was a lecture showing x-rays of various objects stuck in people’s butts. The Doctor, showing the x-ray of a patient with a stuck sex toy, said that this person was seen repeatedly for the same problem. On this patient’s last visit to the hospital the doctor asked the him if he really wanted to have the toy removed or would he just like the doctor to change the batteries.

  7. this happens all the time! that guy in arizona who had ‘hot rod’ tattooed on his johnson got snapped by his surgeon. these two nurses were just unlucky enough to get caught.

  9. If the photos didn’t allow the patient to be identified, this is not legally any different from a post saying “I had a patient yesterday with a BP of 220/90!”.

    To be sure, I support any employer’s right to fire an at-will employee for any reason, including their choice of hair-dye. But I think in this case one would have to say that the hospital fired her because they felt her conduct was unprofessional or reflected poorly on them, not because she actually violated a law.

  13. @9 an x-ray is part of the patient’s medical record and it is illegal to release any part of a patient’s medical record without consent. Photographing a filma and publishing would definitely count as an illegal release of part of the record, so it’s a lot different than just talking about the case in a way that would not ID the patient.

  18. Nurses shouldn’t go to jail for violating patient privacy until patients start going to jail for abusing nurses, physcially and sexually.

    Any harm done to that patient is nothing compared with the degradation nurses are expected to put up with every day.

  19. When I was a Navy Corpsman I did duty in the medical library so, naturally, I read anything I could find on sex. One book had x-rays of the things people stuck up their butts. Light bulbs, knifes, cucumbers, pencils, etc., etc. If those x-rays didn’t identify the patient, I don’t see the problem.

  24. @19 – You were looking at photos in books in an armed services medical library? Consider the possibility that the publishers sought and obtained necessary legal consent to publish them. Very different from cellphone photos posted to FB in the age of HIPAA.

  26. @ 16: I am a nurse, too. You’re right. We’re crazy. Now keep your trivial, boring, whiny cold or flu out of my ER and let me take care of the screaming, bleeding people or I’ll take a picture of your strange and odd-sized genitals and have it decal-ed on the side of my van. And fuck yourself, also.

  27. I would not like it if the nurses did this to me, but guess what? The fact that so many people are talking about it tells me that the nurses’ predilection for the gross and macabre is as normal as yours, mine, and…well…the gentleman who had the weewee stuck up his crack.

    Hmmm…wish I could see those x-rays…

    I guess assholes are not anatomically built to facitate the insertion of plastic weewees.

    Holy Grand Canyon, Batman! This is a job for Procto-Man!

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