Woman Secretly Recorded Doctors During Hernia Surgery, Caught Them Making Fun Of Her [Video]

A Texas woman secretly recorded what was being said by doctors and medical staff during a recent hernia surgery. Ethel Easter said she made the decision to hide an audio recording device in her hair extensions during the procedure following a “tense encounter” with the surgeon in his office. What she caught on tape was insulting and shocking, with so-called medical professionals appearing to mock her weight, her physical appearance, and even making references to Bill Cosby as she lay naked, unconscious, and exposed on the operating table, reports Fox 13 Now.

Leading up to the secretly recorded surgery, the woman says she had a negative experience with her surgeon at his office after he told her that she would have to wait two months for her hernia procedure. According to Easter, it was then that she decided to sneak a device into the operating room so that at least the audio would be recorded.

“This is my natural hair I had a weave at the time which is braid extensions and when I put my hair up I put the recorder right in my hair.”

Check out what she heard when she played back the tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWcU0kYpE1U

In the secretly recorded audio, the surgeon can first be heard complaining about Easter’s behavior in his office two months prior. He tells his surgical staff that she’s a handful and goes into the incident at his office that caused her to secretly record the procedure in the first place, claiming that the woman’s anger stemmed from the fact that his clinic refused to book her case in two weeks.

“She’s a handful. She had some choice words for us in the clinic when we didn’t book her case in two weeks. That doesn’t seem like the thing to say to the person who’s going to do your surgery.”

During the secretly recorded conversation, a nurse can be heard mocking the sedated woman, making disparaging comments about her navel and laughing, reports the Daily Mail.

“Did you see her belly button?”

In addition, the professionals performing the woman’s surgery were secretly recorded comparing her to Precious, the title character of a 2009 film portrayed by Gabourey Sidibe. The character happens to be overweight and black, and the woman who secretly recorded her surgery felt like she was racially profiled in addition to being physically disparaged and generally insulted as she lay vulnerable on the surgical table.

The surgeon and another male, presumably the anesthesiologist, talk back and forth about her similarity to Precious for a few seconds, the secretly recorded audio revealed.

“Precious, yes, this is Precious over here, saying hi to Precious over there.”

In the secretly recorded audio, the New York Daily News reports that Easter even caught the medical staff in the operating room discussing administering medication that she is allergic to. According to the Texas woman, she recorded the surgeon and medical staff discussing giving her the medication Ancef, a drug they knew she is allergic to that had previously landed her in the ER when she had a reaction.

The woman said that listening to the secretly recorded conversation has given her “self-esteem issues” and that she hasn’t decided yet if she’s planning on filing a suit against the hospital. She is, however, considering her legal options following the surgery and secretly recorded audio of her surgeon and his staff blatantly mocking her.

“When you are lying there and these people have you uncovered and you trust them and they speak like this, it’s a bad situation.”

The health management company that runs the hospital reportedly sent Easter a letter in response to the secretly recorded conversation. In the letter, Harris Health System told the woman that it has advised its medical staff to be “more mindful of patients in the operating room.”

They are declining to further discipline the surgeon and staff despite the fact that they were secretly recorded making references to Bill Cosby while touching the woman’s naked, exposed body.

If Easter does decide to file a suit related to the recorded conversation, there is some legal precedent that indicates she could be looking at a big payout. Just last year, a patient in Virginia was awarded $500,000 after, like the Texas woman, he secretly recorded doctors during his colonoscopy; the Virginia man caught his doctors joking about the possibility that he had syphilis or TB.

There has been a lot of discussion throughout traditional and social media regarding whether Easter has a legitimate complaint, or if she was the one who was out of line by smuggling a recording device into her operating room. What do you think? Does the woman’s secretly recorded audio give her a valid complaint against her surgical staff, and is it okay for patients to secretly record their surgical procedures?

[Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images]