Matthew Rymer didn't go to the Surgery Center of Cleveland, Tenn., for a pedicure. But he awoke from surgery to find his toenails painted with a black marker –- and now he is suing the center for $1 million.

According to the suit, Rymer had surgery at the center on Aug. 3, 2006 and while he was unconscious in the recovery room, center employee Kelly Swafford Pickle committed an intentional battery on him by “color[ing] Plaintiff's toe nails with a black marker.”

The experience was so traumatic, the complaint says, that when Rymer's mother was taking him to a doctor for a colonoscopy in January 2007, he

became enraged and told his mother that he was not going to the doctor because he was fearful of what might be done to him while under anesthesia and told his mother to turn around and take him home or he would jump out of the vehicle.

Rymer says he has sought counseling for his “fears, emotional distress and phobia” but “continues to be fearful of seeking medical attention which has previously been recommended” by his proctologist.

There have been other recent cases of medical mischief. Earlier this month, an Illinois woman sued for at least $50,000 in damages, alleging a doctor's assistant licked her toes during an eye-exam visit.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I was checking your sugar level,” the assistant allegedly told her.

Even more bizarrely, the chief resident of general surgery at a Phoenix hospital has admitted using a cellphone to photograph a patient's tattooed penis during a gallbladder procedure in December.

“I feel violated, betrayed and disgusted,” said the patient, who is planning to contact an attorney. According to one law professor, he could allege an array of torts including invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.

In a widely publicized case, the Washington state Supreme Court recently held that an insurer had a duty to defend a dentist who, as a practical joke, inserted boar's tusks into the mouth of an anesthesized employee as he was performing surgery on her. Woo v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., 164 P.3d 454 (2007).

Dr. Robert Woo had settled with the employee for $250,000. “Physicians hold a sacred position of trust -- an obligation to use their unique skills to cure people and guard their dignity,” one commentator on the case said. “Prying a patient's eyes open and sticking toys in her mouth is a shameful abuse of that trust.”

Rymer's blackened toenails seem a minor affront in comparison –- and certainly not worth $1 million in damages. But perhaps he, too, can show that Swafford Pickle's paint job was a “shameful abuse” of his trust.

By Matthew Heller
1/24/08