A Florida gastroenterologist has been disciplined after two recent colonoscopy procedures went awry on his watch, including at least one where he couldn’t hear an improperly-sedated patient’s screams because he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids.
Dr. Ishwari Prasad, 84, has been placed on probation by the Florida Board of Medicine after the botched procedures, according to a state Department of Health administrative complaint viewed by USA Today.
Both colonoscopies took place on June 5 last year at the Tampa Ambulatory Surgery Center.
During the first, Prasad is said to have “improperly delegated” medical tasks to a surgical tech who did not have a license to practice medicine, the complaint reads.
The tech was instructed by Prasad to perform “at least one” task from a list including scope insertion, scope manipulation, manipulating an instrument over polyps or tissue or removing polyps or tissue.
In the second problematic colonoscopy that day, the complaint says Prasad began inserting the scope before the patient was fully sedated, causing him to scream out in pain.
“[Prasad] did not immediately stop the procedure when it became apparent that [the patient] was not fully sedated,” the complaint reads in part, identifying his inability to hear the patient’s shouts as the reason.
Citing an emergency restriction order Prasad was slapped with last September, the Miami Herald reported that the problem with the sedation was due to an issue with the patient’s IV line.
“[The patient] began to yell and shouted that he was in pain and could still feel everything,” according to the order viewed by the Herald. “Dr. Prasad continued to move the scope while [the patient] continued to scream.”
The outlet also wrote that during the second procedure, a hospital administrator in the room told Prasad he had to wait, prompting the doctor to lean over the patient and shout “I know!” while continuing to manipulate the scope.
During the investigation into the incidents, the surgical tech revealed she routinely assists the doctor with an assortment of medical tasks beyond her training during colonoscopies, indicating this was, “because Dr. Prasad is unable to perform them himself.”
She told investigators she “pushes the scope, holds the scope, cuts polyps, puts clips on and removes and pulls out specimens,” the emergency order says.
Prasad, who got his Florida medical license in 1990, has been fined $7,500 and will be required to pay $6,301 in case costs on top of that.
The terms of his suspension require him to take a five-hour continuing medical education class before Aug. 7 of next year.
During his probationary period, Prasad will not be allowed to perform any medical procedures on his own until he’s reviewed and evaluated for competency or performs 10 gastroenterology procedures under the supervision of another physician who will then pass a recommendation to the committee overseeing his probation.
