“Don’t scream like that, the other patients can hear you!”
Angrily hissed by an female OB/Gyn, referring to the adjoined waiting room. The patient was a teenager who had consulted the doctor with a painful vulvar abscess. Directly after being asked to just look and not touch the grape-sized abscess, the doctor had quickly (and unsuccessfully) tried to squeeze it out, making the patient scream out in pain.
myobsaid 
Since she had told him not to touch it, wouldn’t that be considered assault?
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Actually, it’s legally called battery. Telling/threatening to touch a patient is called assault. (Makes no sense, imo, but that’s the legal terminology.) I learned that in both EMT school and nursing school. So, technically, this doc did an illegal thing. But will never get nailed for it because it will be “for the patient’s best interest” and her colleagues will support her – in hopes that she’ll support them if they ever get called to the bench. It’s a horrible thing.
And, the OB isn’t allowed to do an exam without another person in the room – for witness purposes. So if this happened without anyone else there, it’s the OB’s word against the patient’s.
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This is definitely and battery and as the previous commenter said, this will never affect the doctor. I have heard (and experienced) horrendous stories regarding lack of consent and performing procedures where patients out-right said no and I have yet to know anyone who actually successfully sued a dr. or a doctor who received any punishment as a result.
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