Surgeon under fire for making virtual court appearance while operating on patient
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SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR) — A Sacramento surgeon under investigation for attending virtual traffic court while operating on a patient.
The judge called it “inappropriate” and immediately stopped the hearing. Now the medical board is investigating it all.
Video of the Zoom hearing shows Sacramento plastic surgeon, Dr. Scott Green, mid-operation. At one point, blood can be seen on his gloves. A clerk asked Dr. Green, “It kind of looks like you’re in an operating room right now?” And the surgeon responded, “I am, sir.”
Commissioner Gary Link quickly realized what was happening and shut down the hearing.
“Unless I’m mistaken, I’m seeing a defendant that’s in the middle of an operating room is that correct sir?” Commissioner Link said.
“Yes sir,” Dr. Green replied.
“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,” said Commissioner Link.
Dr. Green has been working for years in both Sacramento and Granite Bay. CBS13 visited his office Monday but neither Dr. Green nor his associates had a comment on the incident.
Now some people are reacting online:
One woman wrote: “How irresponsible & arrogant.”
But others claiming to be former patients are coming to his defense saying, “Dr. Green is one of the good ones. Did he use poor judgment? Possibly, we know very little about the facts.”
And another former patient said, “I trust Dr. Green even with all this media coverage, he would never put a patient in harm.”
But Dr. Charles Rosen, Board President for the Association of Medical Ethics, calls taking the Zoom call “dangerous.”
“Your full attention has to be on the surgery no matter how simple or how complicated it is,” said Dr. Rosen.
Dr. Green apologized and his hearing has been rescheduled.
The Medical Board says the incident is under investigation and it “expects physicians to follow the standard of care when treating their patients.”
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