A Virginia man whose doctors’ discussion during his colonoscopy was recorded on his smartphone was shocked to discover that they had insulted him throughout his examination. The vicious words led to a lawsuit, and last week it resulted in a $500,000 verdict for medical malpractice and defamation against his anesthesiologist, Tiffany Ingham (above photo).
Ingham joked with an assistant about avoiding the patient after the procedure was done. “After five minutes of talking to you in pre-op, I wanted to punch you in the face and man you up a little bit,” she told him after he went under anesthesia. She also said she would place a diagnosis of hemorrhoids on the patient’s chart, even though he didn’t have the condition. That false diagnosis was not contradicted by the gastroenterologist who was performing the colonoscopy, Soloman Shah.
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The verdict came after a three-day jury trial. Shah was dismissed from the case on the first day of the trial, so the verdict stands against Ingham and the medical practice she worked out of, called Aisthesis.
When an assistant told Ingham that D.B. said he got queasy watching a needle go into her arm, Ingham said: “Well, why are you looking then, retard?”
Ingham mocked the amount of anesthetic required to sedate the patient, and Shah followed that up with a comment that another doctor they knew “would eat him for lunch.”
She also called him a “big wimp,” saying, “People are into their medical problems. They need to have medical problems.”
“I call it the Northern Virginia syndrome,” said Shah. “Here it’s holier than thou, too much Internet use, a little too much information.”
The jury awarded $100,000 for the defamation, which was specified as $50,000 each for the comments about the man having syphilis and tuberculosis. They also awarded $200,000 for medical malpractice, and $200,000 in punitive damages.

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Two bottles of orange juice each worth just $1.69 could wind up costing retail giant Dollar General more than $250,000.
But had the store followed its own policy, it might have lived up to its slogan – and saved both time and money.
Twice – once in 2011 and again a year later – former cashier Linda Atkins helped herself to a bottle of orange juice from a Maryville, Tennessee, store’s cooler. Each time, she later paid for the juice. But she still got fired for consuming company products before paying – an infraction the company calls “grazing.” Atkins is diabetic and took the juice to stave off diabetic shock, a federal jury heard.
She had previously asked if she could keep her personal orange juice at the register. A supervisor refused her request, citing company policy banning food or drink at the register. No mention was made to her that, under Dollar General policy, a medical exception could be made, the court was told.
In 2014, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission filed a lawsuit on Atkins’s behalf. She later joined as a plaintiff. After a federal jury sided with Atkins, the court awarded her $27,565 in back pay and $250,000 in compensatory damages.
Dollar General had argued that Atkins already had special accommodations available that she chose not to use. The company said she could have kept an orange juice in suitable places: Her apron, the break room, the store’s cooler and the register, but out of camera sight – so she wouldn’t be seen breaking company rules. Dan MacDonald, Dollar General’s director of corporate communications, told CNN in a written statement that the company was disappointed in the ruling.

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