Surgeon Fined For Leaving Emergency Operation And Falling Asleep

An orthopedic surgeon at Boston Medical Center left the operating room before an emergency procedure to eat in his car ― then fell asleep and missed the entire operation, he admitted to Massachusetts regulators. He didn’t return until the following day.

Dr. Tony Tannoury, 54, was fined $5,000 and reprimanded for “conduct that undermines the public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession,” the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

Tannoury, the hospital’s head of spine surgery, admitted in a consent order that “he left a patient in the operating room under the care of the chief resident when he was the orthopedic attending covering for emergencies, that he was not present for the critical portions of the surgery as required by hospital policy and did not return to the hospital until the following day,” according to the state Board of Registration in Medicine.

“The patient was notified of the situation and the surgical outcome was positive,” a spokesperson for Boston Medical Center said of the 2016 incident, per USA Today.

Tannoury, who had accompanied the patient and the resident into the operating room before his nap, also was ordered to complete five education credits in professionalism and review regulations, The Associated Press noted. He’s been a doctor in Massachusetts since 2005, according to the state.