A Florida doctor has been disciplined by the state after one of his patients accused him of not hearing her “screams” during a colonoscopy because she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids.
Dr. Ishwari Prasad, a Tampa-based gastroenterologist who is hearing impaired, was placed on probation last week by the state Board of Medicine for allegedly failing to wear his hearing aids when performing a colonoscopy, causing immeasurable pain to his patients.
Another of Prasad’s patients has detailed an eerily similar experience she said she suffered in 2018 in a separate incident.
“I was a bit panicked because I couldn’t move. And I’m completely aware of what’s happening. I can hear everything that’s going on around me. And I can see the doctor,” Ingrid Rafael told the BBC. Fox 13 following the lawsuit.
A nine-page complaint from the Florida Department of Health details disturbing allegations that two patients, other than Rafael, said occurred at the Ambulatory Surgery Center in Tampa in June 2023.
Ingrid Rafael shared a story eerily similar to the one laid out in the lawsuit against Prasad, alleging that she too woke up during a colonoscopy performed by the doctor.
Tampa’s Ambulatory Surgery Center (pictured) is where two patients went for a routine colonoscopy that reportedly turned into a horrific experience.
In the complaint, one of the patients who was partially sedated woke up in agonizing pain during the procedure, but Prasad, who initially denied all claims made in the filing, did not record the patient’s screams.
“I was panicking because I couldn’t move. And the pain, the pain, was what really got to me,” Rafael said of the moment he woke up to his own incident.
After initially refuting the lawsuit’s claims, Prasad told Fox13 that he stopped continuing the procedure once he realized the patient, who he said was “sedated by the anesthesiologist,” was awake before re-sedating him and beginning the procedure again.
“I understand it’s not necessarily just about the doctor, but, you know, he’s the one in charge at the end of the day,” Rafael said of Prasad’s latest response to the lawsuit.
A file image of instruments used by doctors during a colonoscopy procedure.
“What really makes me angrier is that he doesn’t necessarily acknowledge where he went wrong.”
During the surgery, the surgical team also allegedly failed to communicate effectively with the doctor, the file states.
The complaint also alleged that Prasad “improperly delegated” tasks to an unlicensed surgical technician.
According to the complaint, the surgical technician — without a medical license — allegedly received instructions under Prasad’s guidance to perform a portion of the procedure “that included inserting the endoscope, manipulating it, manipulating the loop over the polyps and/or removing them.”
Following her own procedure, Rafael said she is still in shock and trauma.
“I feel like I’m going to wake up from every procedure I’ve ever had done now because there’s no peace,” she told the outlet.
The doctor, who has never had any prior disciplinary action against him, can no longer perform procedures alone until he receives clearance from the state-approved supervising physician, according to the Florida Board of Medicine.
In addition to these restrictions, he was fined $7,500 and must forfeit $6,301 in costs of the case, according to USA today.
In addition to that, he also has to complete a five-hour course on continuing medical education in laws, rules and ethics within the next year.
Prasad did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
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