Female surgeons sexually assaulted while operating

By James Gallagher, Natalie Truswell and Jonathan Sumberg Article Archive

Female surgeons say they are being sexually harassed, assaulted and in some cases raped by colleagues, a major analysis of NHS staff has found.

BBC News has spoken to women who were sexually assaulted in the operating theatre while surgery took place.

The study's authors say there is a pattern of female trainees being abused by senior male surgeons, and this is happening now, in NHS hospitals.

The Royal College of Surgeons said the findings were "truly shocking".

Warning - this story contains some graphic detail. There is support for anyone affected here.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape have been referred to as surgery's open secret.

There is an untold story of women being fondled inside their scrubs, of male surgeons wiping their brow on their breasts and men rubbing erections against female staff. Some have been offered career opportunities for sex.

The analysis - by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery - has been shared exclusively with BBC News.

Nearly two-thirds of women surgeons that responded to the researchers said they had been the target of sexual harassment and a third had been sexually assaulted by colleagues in the past five years.

Women say they fear reporting incidents will damage their careers and they lack confidence the NHS will take action.

'Why is his face in my cleavage?'​

There is a nervousness to talk openly. Judith asked that we use only her first name. She is now an experienced and talented consultant surgeon.



She was sexually assaulted early in her career when she was the person with the least power in the operating theatre - and a senior male surgeon was sweating.

"[He] just turned round and buried his head right into my breasts and I realised he was wiping his brow on me.

"You just freeze right, 'why is his face in my cleavage?'"

When he did it for a second time Judith offered to get him a towel. The reply came back "no, this is much more fun", she says, "and it was the smirk - I felt dirty, I felt humiliated".

Even worse for her was the total silence of her colleagues.

"He wasn't even the most senior person in the operating theatre, but he knew that behaviour was ok and that's just rotten."

• What counts as sexual harassment at work and what are your rights?
• NHS needs MeToo moment, says former surgeon

This happened to Judith in the middle of the operating theatre, but the sexual harassment and sexual abuse extends beyond the hospital.

'I trusted him'​

Anne - we cannot reveal her real name for legal reasons - wanted to talk to the BBC because she believes change will only happen when people speak out.

She doesn't choose to describe what happened to her as rape, but is clear the sex that took place was not consensual. It happened at a social event tied to a medical conference - a meeting of doctors within the same speciality.

In a familiar pattern, she was a trainee and he was a consultant.

"I trusted him, I looked up to him," she says.

He played on that trust saying she didn't know the other people there and that she couldn't trust them.

"So, he walked me back to the place I was staying, I thought he wanted to talk and yet he just suddenly turned on me and he had sex with me."

She said in that moment her body froze and "I couldn't stop him".

"It's not what I wanted, it had never been what I wanted, it was totally unexpected."

When she saw him the next day she was "barely able to hold myself together".

"I didn't feel I could make a fuss, I felt like there was a very strong culture of just putting up with whatever was done to you."

The incident had a lasting impact, first leaving her emotionally numb and years later "the memory would come flooding into my mind like a horror, like a nightmare" at work, even as she was preparing to operate on a patient.

BBC Sounds: Is surgery a safe place for women to work?

Shaking confidence in surgeons​

It is widely accepted there is a culture of silence around such behaviour. Surgical training relies on learning from senior colleagues in the operating theatre and women have told us it is risky to speak out about those who have power and influence over their future careers.

The report, which is being published in the British Journal of Surgery, is the first attempt to get a sense of the scale.

Registered surgeons - men and women - were invited to take part completely anonymously and 1,434 responded. Half were women:

• 63% of women had been the target of sexual harassment from colleagues
• 30% of women had been sexually assaulted by a colleague
• 11% of women reported forced physical contact related to career opportunities
• At least 11 incidents of rape were reported
• 90% of women, and 81% of men, had witnessed some form of sexual misconduct

While the report shows men are also subject to some of this behaviour (24% had been sexually harassed), it concludes men and women surgeons are "living different realities".

"Our findings are likely to shake the confidence of the public in the surgical profession," said Dr Christopher Begeny, from the University of Exeter.

• 35,000 cases of sexual misconduct in NHS in five years
• Workplace sexual-harassment clampdown for doctors

Meanwhile a second report - called Breaking the Silence: Addressing Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare - is making recommendations for what needs to change.

The pair of reports suggest the relatively lower proportion of women surgeons (around 28%), combined with surgery being deeply hierarchical, gives some men significant power and this combines badly with the high-pressure environment of surgery.

"That leads to people being able to behave with impunity and much of this goes unchecked," Prof Carrie Newlands, consultant surgeon from the University of Surrey.

She was motivated to tackle such behaviour after hearing the experiences of her junior colleagues.

She told the BBC: "The commonest scenario is that a junior female trainee is abused by a senior male perpetrator, who is often their supervisor.

"And that results in a culture of silence where people are in real fear of their future and their careers if they do speak up."

'Incredibly upsetting'​

Another theme that emerged in the data was a lack of faith in bodies such as NHS Trusts, the General Medical Council (which manages the UK's register of doctors allowed to practice) and the Royal Colleges (which represent specialities in medicine) - to tackle the problem.

"We need a major change in investigation processes so they become external and independent, and are trusted in order for healthcare to become a safer place to work," says Prof Newlands.

The British Medical Association called the findings "atrocious". Dr Latifa Patel, BMA equality lead, said: "It is appalling that women in surgery are being subjected to sexual assault and sexual misconduct from their colleagues, at work and often whilst they are trying to care for patients. The impact this will have on their wellbeing for years to come as well as their careers is profound."

Tim Mitchell, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, told the BBC the survey's findings are "deeply shocking and will be a source of great embarrassment to the surgical profession".

He acknowledged it is "clear it is a common problem" that has not been addressed.

"We need to put in place a culture of zero tolerance to ensure that there are mechanisms that mean people who are affected feel confident they can come forward, report these incidents and they will be taken seriously,"he said.

Dr Binta Sultan, from NHS England, said the report made "incredibly difficult reading" and presented "clear evidence" that more action was needed to make hospitals "safe for all".

She said: "We are already taking significant steps to do this, including through commitments to provide more support and clear reporting mechanisms to those who have suffered harassment or inappropriate behaviour."

The General Medical Council last month updated its professional standards for doctors.

Its chief executive Charlie Massey said "acting in a sexual way towards patients or colleagues is unacceptable" and that "serious misconduct is incompatible" with continuing to practise medicine in the UK.

But is surgery a safe place for women to work today?

"Not always. And that's a dreadful thing to have to admit," says Judith.

---

I believe this is the study cited by the article. For those who want to look at it.

 

[Chandelier]

Yeah I doubt it, in the cases it is not made up it's probably men just not noticing what they do and the women immediately take it as rape rather than the more likely option.

Unless the race of the men is mentioned, and given stories of this happening - i.e. the Brazilian surgeon who stuffed his cock in unconscious patients - I can believe it.

This... sounds too idiotic. Either that or it proves that the medical industry's quality has dropped low enough that retards and dumbasses are getting hired for critical positions. Throw in the browning of the west, that would explain alot.

Either way, slowly but surely we are lapsing back to the dark ages of medicine.

There was a famous case of an Indian doctor doing just that. He was raping his female patients, in some cases impregnating them, and I don't doubt he harassed his female colleagues as well. What isn't mentioned, though, is the race of the men assaulting the women, so Coulter's Law is in effect.

Yeah... no! Sorry, healthcare is ruled by women. It is a 90% female workspace. And those most subject to sexual harassment and abuse are the male nurses.

Nursing is dominated by women, yet general surgeons have more men.

 

[Megaton Punch]

When he did it for a second time Judith offered to get him a towel. The reply came back "no, this is much more fun", she says, "and it was the smirk - I felt dirty, I felt humiliated".

OBJECTION!

So, Judith. You say you saw the surgeon "smirk" at you, is that right? And this all happened during an operation? Well then, I just have one question for you...

*SLAM*

How could you have possibly seen him smirk when he was wearing a mask?!



Surgeons always wear masks in the operating room! This is common knowledge! Well, Judith? Explain yourself!

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Of course Anne doesn't describe that as rape, because it isn't. Unless we're going to implement South Park's PC Principle-esque consent form procedure before every sexual encounter then rape needs to be strictly defined. Regret isn't rape.

 

[glass_houses]

I believe it. Personal experience and all that. Narcissists and psychopaths gravitate to professions that give them power over others. And even if someone isn't a clinical narc, being effectively worshipped and having the literal power of life and death over others can certainly induce narc traits.

 

[AgendaPoster]

Surgery is hard and depressing.
Sometimes you just need the sweet touch of a female bosom on your sweaty forehead to have the will to continue.
You don't want patients to die, don't you? What did you think your role was as a "female surgeon"?

I believe it. Personal experience and all that. Narcissists and psychopaths gravitate to professions that give them power over others. And even if someone isn't a clinical narc, being effectively worshipped and having the literal power of life and death over others can certainly induce narc traits.

You say this as if it's some sort of evil or whatever.
Count the saved lives too please

 

[Kermit Jizz]

"So, he walked me back to the place I was staying, I thought he wanted to talk and yet he just suddenly turned on me and he had sex with me."

She said in that moment her body froze and "I couldn't stop him".

"It's not what I wanted, it had never been what I wanted, it was totally unexpected."

This sounds like a fucking virgin wrote it. How do you initiate sex with a fully clothed woman unexpectedly? One second he was just walking you home (suspect) and the next his cock was in your hole out of nowhere? Did he fucking trip and accidently land cock first into you? Bullshit. He either made moves and you went along with it, or he forcibly removed your clothes. Since it's not the later, you're a lying whore.

 

[Kosher Dill]

From now on I refuse to wipe my own sweaty brow without being motorboated.

 

[Matt Damon]

I don't believe it. Or, while operating, the male dr and the female nurse were in close proximity, as required by the surgery and she thought he was raping her.

I was thinking the same thing. When you have multiple people working on something, it's not uncommon to get into situations where you HAVE to be positioned and touch each other in a semi-uncomfortable way. You just do it and get it over with and it's not a big deal - I once helped a friend drywall her house and while doing the ceiling in one storage closet with big built-in shelving, she had to lay on her back and screw the sheetrock in while I laid partially on top of her between her legs holding it in position. Lots of crass jokes were made, but ultimately you do what you gotta do to git 'er done.

And that's while you're working on drywall or plumbing or electrical or something. I imagine multiple people working inside a human body is a very, very awkward job where you're going to be in close proximity the entire time.

 

[Desu Mountain]

At first I thought it was Pajeets. Then I saw that it was in Britain and realized I was correct.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

@Otterly

You work in medicine, what are your thoughts on this? Valid? Bullshit?

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

Somehow I doubt a single thing in this article ever actually happened. Let alone during surgery

In the operating room, the surgeons and nurses put on sterile gloves and gowns in a very stereotyped way upon entering the room after scrubbing in to ensure a sterile field and reduce chances of postop infections.

You actually have to practice the technique of putting on gowns and gloves without ever touching the outside surfaces.

Once gowned up, it's a common rule that surgeons and nurses can't touch anything above their nipples and below your navel. The safest place to keep your hands is actually on the surgical drapes over the patient, which started off sterile.

What this means is that you frustratingly can't do any self care. You can't adjust your glasses. You can't itch your nose or wipe your brow. You can't adjust your surgical mask or your cap.

ORs solve this by having a float nurse that isn't scrubbed in and is the gopher. She brings the surgical tools in their wrappers, she adjusts the overhead lamps, she takes calls for the surgeon. She also does the personal stuff like wiping brows and adjusting glasses. But she can't actually touch anything sterile or the surgical field.

The allegations of wiping his brow on an intern's breasts seems incredulous, but possible. The surgeon can't touch their own forehead and has to wait for someone else to come around to do it for them. Although it wouldn't be kosher from an infection control perspective for him to be touching his forehead to her chest if she were scrubbed in herself, meaning that she would have to degown, scrub and gown up again with brand new kit.

Surgeons are weird people. The training requirements are long and dehumanizing, probably similar to some military training programs. The quality of life and the hours still really suck even once you reach the top.

It attracts and breeds a lot of one dimensional broken quirky people.

 

[Omen_Sulk]

Somehow I doubt a single thing in this article ever actually happened. Let alone during surgery

I was actually in a doctors office and the guy was like some eccentric doctor from the 1930's. Just throwing out weird jokes and nurse innuendo left and right while the nurse just rolled her eyes at him. I don't think it's some epidemic, but I do think those guys are out there.

 

[Otterly]

@Otterly

You work in medicine, what are your thoughts on this? Valid? Bullshit?

Not a medic, but work a lot with them and sometimes have been in theatre for samples. Also for some odd reason know a lot of surgeons. They’re all massive egos.
I can well imagine someone wiping themselves on someone’s shoulder or arm. That happens once and the second time you pick up something sharp or foul, hold it over your tits and make a ‘joke’ about the field being hazardous. If he says it’s more fun you reply that it won’t be if he needs to be the next on the table haha ha. Laugh it off with a threat under.
Men used to get handsy sometimes at work and in life and you responded accordingly. If they did it again you were within your rights to make a big fuss but you were expected to be able to tell them to fuck off. And yes they shouldnt do that at all, I know that. Most of that has been stopped cold by current year metoo stuff.
There was also a common practice of male medics using unconscious female patients for vaginal and pelvic exams without consent. Doctors can be really very inhumane and they often see people as bodies, surgeons doubly so.
Older males in positions of power asking for sex from younger trainees seems to be depressingly common - it absolutely is in academia. I was quite stunned at how prevalent student/grad student/prof/lecturer flings were. These are men who never operate in the real world and are incredibly entitled.
It’s telling there’s only one ‘in theatre’ incident. There are always other people around and you’ve got a job to do. I very much doubt there’s an epidemic of sexual abuse going on on staff during operations. That’s clickbait.
I would suspect that the ‘in theatre’ stuff is exaggerated but yeah, I can well imagine older surgeons being arses. It’ll be a combo of predatory behaviour and the diversity thinking they’re entitled to bobs and vagine. Most of the random grabbing and casual groping has stopped due to metoo and the current climate of being able to destroy someone with allegations. What’s left is the rally nasty ones who nothing stops, like the Brazilian dude raping the c section patient, and the bobs and vagine set, to whom the rules don’t seem to apply.
Every year in the UK we seem to get a story about some bloke raping/taking pics of unconscious patients. Where you’re got a position of power and vulnerable or unconscious people you’ve got the potential for abuse. I’m more concerned about the patients than the staff.

 

[derpherp2]

If you're going to define sexual assault as "harassment, abuse, and RAPE" maybe make distinctions. That's like going 1, 2, 3, 1289473294732734934 in terms of making a definition.

Also blah blah blah correlation between psychopathy and surgeons.

What’s left is the rally nasty ones who nothing stops, like the Brazilian dude raping the c section patient, and the bobs and vagine set, to whom the rules don’t seem to apply.

And the nurse raping some woman enough times that she got pregnant.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

There was also a common practice of male medics using unconscious female patients for vaginal and pelvic exams without consent.

This one is trickier for me. I feel like this one got a bad wrap and was sensationalized.

I was a student in the times when this was still common practice.

Consent is also tricky. There obviously wasn't explicit consent, in that I as a student never asked the conscious preop patient whether I could do a pelvic exam later. But there are clauses in the surgical contract that the hospital is a teaching hospital and students will be involved in your care.

These exams were also only done during gynecological surgeries. It's not like we were doing pelvic exams during appendectomy and gall bladder surgeries.

Before we'd scrub in and gown up, the gynecologist would do examine the unconscious patient to assess the uterine fibroid/ovarian cyst/uterus/cystocele, etc manually before doing any cutting. They'd then encourage us as students to examine the pathology manually to know what to look for/what it felt like for future reference in real life.

TBH, we didn't really think about it. It was all over in a couple of seconds. It was also helpful to actually feel what pathology felt like when the rare opportunities you get to practice otherwise are always normal and healthy, including the standardized patient volunteers.

I can understand women's discomfort in finding out that teaching or non-vital exams took place while unconscious. But without the controversy, most patients wouldn't even know. And the surgeons and the prep nurses are going to be doing the same procedures anyway.

It's sort of a tragedy of the commons thing, especially for male trainees. Everyone wants experienced, skilled and competent end-product doctors but many individual patients want to opt out of the processes needed to produce them.

I suppose there's also an argument that pelvic exam skills are a dying art anyway because anything the least bit abnormal is getting an ultrasound.

 

[WhiskeyJack]

As someone who spent a decade cleaning OR rooms (and ER trauma rooms), I can tell you from personal experience that surgeons will just walk straight into a sterile room without gloves, gown, mask, or foot coverings. We had one guy who would burst in eating a donut, straight from working out in the wellness center, still covered in sweat. He'd play around on the computer for twenty minutes, then leave and we'd have to scrub the entire fucking room all over again.

But yeah, while surgeons do shag the odd nurses from time to time, that shit is done in their private offices, not during surgery. The smell of burnt bone and infection is a huge turn off, obviously. And you're never alone, and there are cameras all over the surgery anyway.

Though I'd say hospital administrators tend to fuck nurses more than the surgeons, most doctors already have like three girlfriends on the side and a half dozen ex-wives to support. Nurses are low-tier, and most are painfully fat to begin with. Hot chicks get better pay with easier work elsewhere. Might be different in a larger hospital though, we were only 500 beds.

 

[Otterly]

I can understand women's discomfort in finding out that teaching or non-vital exams took place while unconscious. But without the controversy, most patients wouldn't even know.

I respectfully disagree with this, and I disagree completely. It’s a very distressing thing to realise. And no, they wouldnt know if they were unconscious but that can be expanded to anything - they wouldn’t know if they were raped during it either but that doesn’t make it right. Informed consent should be drummed into you all from the start. You have to ask or it’s a violation. Doubly so for obgyn.
As a woman, and having had kids, I have been horrified by how I was treated and handled during exams and birth. I say that as someone who is well aware that sometimes stuff needs to happen. I am no snowflake. I know students need to learn. How I was treated and handled during birth has made me absolutely LOATHE the medical profession and covid just topped that off. And I know there are good ones, but that’s how I feel.
It’s not ok to get half a dozen people to do an invasive exam that can cause discomfort after on someone’s sexual organs without consent. I understand that students need to learn. And all it needs is a ‘we will need to do exams, I will need to do this as part of your treatment - do i have your consent for me to ask two students to do this as well? It’s important for teaching, and you have the right to say no.’ When I have been asked this, I have said yes. If it was done without my consent I’d be absolutely fucking furious and upset. Pelvic exams can be painful. Having half a dozen inexperienced students have a go after is likely to cause discomfort at a minimum
I understand why you need to see the person on the table as a collection of pathology rather than a person, but they are a person. Informed consent is the cornerstone of ethics. You have to get consent, especially for anything that’s akin to sexual penetration.

 

[SBG]

The “froze up” thing is a bit suspicious. I’ve heard of this where women lay back and go along with having sex, then decide it was rape afterwards.

Seems autistic as the women demonstrate they should go along with having sex rather than put their clothes on. They don’t know how to deal with non-verbal social cues such as come up with sex.

 

[Mordecai "3 Finger" Brown]

It’s not ok to get half a dozen people to do an invasive exam that can cause discomfort after on someone’s sexual organs without consent.

In my example, I was first assist. Meaning I was directly part of the surgical team and would later be hands on manually assisting with the surgery.

In your example, there's a queue of useless learners lining up in a queue.

So there's a matter of scale here. Where's the line? Who is considered vital and who is considered superfluous?

The trouble with absolutes with informed consent is that it breaks down in practice with granularity, reality and tradition.

The patient signs a generic surgical waiver agreement with their surgeon outlining the general procedure, expectations and potential risks.

But the OB/GYN doesn't explicitly ask and obtain permission to perform intimate exams under sedation on the day of surgery. It's simply implied by agreeing to the terms of the surgery that you trust their judgment once underway. Same with the nurses prepping the patient once under, inserting the catheter, positioning the patient in stirrups, sterilizing the perineum, etc.

The surgeon doesn't inform and seek permission for all the other steps that occur during surgery while under anesthesia. It's just assumed they are competent and we generally trust their judgment. They don't inform and seek our consent for which scalpel blade to use, incision location, suture type, brands and diameter, antibiotic type to administer, suturing stitch to close, etc.

And all it needs is a ‘we will need to do exams, I will need to do this as part of your treatment - do i have your consent for me to ask two students to do this as well? It’s important for teaching, and you have the right to say no.’

I think this is probably the ultimate answer.

The reality though during my time in this environment was that neither the surgeon or myself actually interacted with the patient preop between cases, only the anesthesiologist did.

We were generally running around the hospital putting out fires between surgeries, arriving at the last minute when the patient was already out and on the table.

Your method is likely the right one, but would require major staffing and culture shifts.

 

[Otterly]

The reality though during my time in this environment was that neither the surgeon or myself actually interacted with the patient preop between cases, only the anesthesiologist did.

Same in my case - only saw the anaesthetics person. But they can ask, surely. It’s literally one sentence. There is also a culture shift needed - one person next to you being walked through on a see one do one is not the same as a cohort of med students having a go. That’s up to the person in charge of those students, and I’ve seen how they approach things.
Women giving birth are often treated badly - in non emergency situations there needs to be a presumption of ‘I am just going to do x, because y. Is that ok? Ok, relax …’ often you don’t even get that. Every woman I know had things like exams done without asking. Temperatures taken without asking in the middle of the night. Even someone coming along and taking bloods.
If it’s critical all bets are off, but they don’t ask routinely and that’s a massive issue. IME the sheer disregard for my person blew my mind. It takes under twenty seconds to say ‘hi, I need to check how dilated you are, is that ok? I’m going to do this, alright?’ I’m going to press here, or do this, or just check this. You don’t waltz in and just do it.
ETA, and I don’t care if I get hats for it men would not put up with that shit. If men were routinely needing intimate exams and medics were just rolling them over and having a quick prostate check, there would be uproar (and black eyes) and it wouldn’t happen again. Mr. O was witness to quite a bit of this and often said the same. ‘That doesn’t happen with men.’ No I bet it doesn’t.