Colonoscopy patient sues doctors for making fun of him while he was unconscious

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va., April 22 (UPI) -- A Virginia colonoscopy patient has filed a lawsuit in Fairfax County Court alleging that doctors defamed him and inflicted emotional distress by mocking him while he was unconscious.

In the suit, plaintiff D.B. alleges that Drs. Tiffany Ingham and Soloman Shah of Safe Sedation and Safe Sedation Management began making fun of him as soon as the anesthesia put him under.

The plaintiff allegedly captured the doctors joking about shooting a gun up his rectum on a cellphone recording. "On April 18, 2013, during a colonoscopy, plaintiff was verbally brutalized and defamed by the very doctors to whom he entrusted his life while under anesthesia," the complaint states.

D.B. had his phone recording so he wouldn’t forget the doctors’ instructions for post-operation care.

"Referring to plaintiff, Soloman Shah, M.D. commented that a teaching physician known to both him and Tiffany Ingham, M.D. 'would eat him for lunch,’” the complaint says. "Tiffany Ingham, M.D. agreed that plaintiff would be 'eaten alive' and also jokingly discussed a hypothetical of firing a gun up a rectum."

The doctors also allegedly discussed whether the plaintiff was gay. He is seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages for defamation.