An orthopeadic surgeon in Australia was fined for taking the photo and sharing it – but said he’d been ‘subjected to racism’ in his life, which triggered his ‘regrettable’ actions
A doctor has been reprimanded and fined $10,000 (£4,858) after taking a photo of a swastika tattooed on a patient’s penis while they were in a coma. The orthopaedic surgeon, whose name has been suppressed, then shared the image on WhatsApp with other colleagues.
The incident happened at a hospital in Queensland, Australia in April 2019 after a man was being treated when a homemade pipe-bomb exploded in his hands. He was put in intensive care, where he was intubated and remained in a coma for a week.
During this period, he was looked after by the surgeon in question who “noticed the swastika tattoo and photographed it”, the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal stated in its findings on the case. The Office of the Health Ombudsman were notified in December 2019 and a subsequent investigation was referred to the medical tribunal.
It was discovered that the surgeon shared the photo with other treating practitioners on WhatsApp “or a similar platform”, which had “no clinical or medical purpose”. Tribunal member Peter Murphy SC said his unprofessional conduct was serious, but noted that he “immediately regretted” taking the photo.
Mr Murphy referred to the vulnerable state of the patient. “The patient was unconscious and particularly vulnerable,” he said. The Medical Board of Australia requested to the Tribunal that the doctor should be suspended from practice for six months and have a mentoring condition attached.
However, Mr Murphy instead ruled that a finding of misconduct was sufficient and fined the surgeon – referred to as as Doctor A in the decision – a total of $10,000, reports News.com.au. The surgeon faced criminal proceedings but these were eventually dismissed after he agreed with the patient to a “private arrangement” at a restorative justice conference.
The surgeon told the tribunal he had been “subjected to racism in various forms” all his life in Australia. Mr Murphy added: “It has caused him significant distress, manifesting in him ultimately changing his name formally.”
He said the appearance of the swastika on the man’s penis “triggered feelings of shock and offence”. In addition, that “he understood the swastika to represent racism and to be derogatory of people with his ethnic origins.”
On top of this, Mr Murphy said the surgeon was also facing a huge amount of stress within the public health system when the incident happened. The doctor has since resigned from the hospital and has returned to private practice in the five years since the complaint was raised.
Elsewhere in Australia, a woman was spared jail after she rummaged through dog vomit and pulled out human toes ready to sell them online. Joanna Kathlyn Kinman, 48, had been working at an animal shelter in Melbourne in February 2024.
At this point two dogs were surrendered following their owner’s death of natural causes. The pets had gone on to eat parts of his body before eventually bringing the remains back up, including his toes. It was then that the mum-of-five, who wasn’t there at the time of the man’s death, started to search through wheelie bins for the toes.
She found them and took the body parts home. Kinman informed her daughter that she was going to sell them online and believed that she could get up to $400 (£196) for them. However, an anonymous source tipped off the police – who then turned up at her home in suburban Lilydale and soon arrested her.
Magistrate Andrew Sim sentenced Kinman to an 18-month community corrections order, which included 150 hours of community work. He said she had escaped a prison sentence, “by the barest of possible margins”.
He also observed that it was “hardly surprising” Kinman ended up losing her job over the “entirely odd behaviour”. Mr Sim added: “I find it remarkable that someone of the accused’s experience and education would not know it was an offence.”
