Bay Area ER doctor suspended after incident with patient goes viral

A South Bay emergency room doctor has been suspended after cursing and mocking a man who said he had an anxiety attack.|
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS GATOS - A San Francisco Bay Area emergency room doctor has been suspended after cursing and mocking a man who said he had an anxiety attack.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Dr. Beth Keegstra, a contract doctor with El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos, was suspended after she was recorded on June 11 questioning whether 20-year-old Samuel Bardwell was sick or just looking for drugs.

Bardwell's father, Donald, said his son suffers anxiety attacks and takes the drug Klonopin. But the college student hadn't picked up a prescription for two days before suffering an attack after basketball practice.

The father recorded Keegstra scoffing when Samuel Bardwell says he can't inhale.

She replies: "you must be dead" and calls him "the least sick of all the people who are here."

Keegstra couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

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