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Doctor sued for 'branding' patient's uterus
Dr. Red Alinsod is being sued for engraving his patient's name on her uterus.
A California gynecologist is being sued for branding a patient's name on her uterus using an "electrocautery device."
Dr. Red Alinsod removed Ingrid Paulicivic's uterus during an operation at his Orange County office in 2006, according to the complaint posted on The Smoking Gun's website. The Laguna Beach doctor carved "Ingrid" on the organ, according to the site, because he "did not want to get it confused with others."
Alinsod told the site that labeling of body parts in that manner is not typical. But, he said, he "felt comfortable putting her name on the uterus" since the 47-year-old hairdresser was a "good friend."
Paulicivic's attorney, Devan Mullins, told CNN.com that his client did not know her physician before consulting him for the operation. Paulicivic and her husband learned of the branding during a follow-up visit, the lawyer said.
During that visit, Paulicivic complained to Alinsod about burns to her leg that she suffered during the operation, Mullins told CNN.com. The doctor was looking at images that were taken during the operation, and the couple asked for copies.
"Alinsod hesitated to give them the photos," the attorney said, sparking the couple's suspicion that something was wrong. The doctor told the couple that he didn't know how to copy the images, so the husband, who is a photographer, showed Alinsod how to move the images to a memory card, and the couple took them, Mullins said.
Later in the husband's office, the couple looked at the photos and were shocked to see "Ingrid" spelled out in inch-high letters on her uterus.
"They reacted like anyone would react - 'Oh my God, I cannot believe this happened,' " the lawyer said.
The couple hired Mullins, who tried for 90 days to notify Alinsod of an impending complaint, but the doctor did not react. "That's what's been odd - that we've gotten no response from him whatsoever," Mullins said.
CNN.com spoke with Alinsod's office manager Tuesday, who said that the physician was seeing patients and that he would not comment on the litigation.
According to Alinsod's website, he formerly headed gynecologic services at George Air Force Base in California and Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. He was affectionately called a "Combat Gynecologist" by his colleagues, it says.
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He did it after it was out of her?
Who the Fark cares then? It's not like you get to take home removed body parts. They no longer belong to you.
What a freaky money grab. They shouldn't get a dime.
Was this lady harmed? No. Was it a tasteless thing to do? All most as much as putting a mosque at ground zero.
All your girl parts are belong to me.
Seriously though, the women is 45 years old. It's not like the thing was going to get much use anyways. Like an earlier poster said "it was medical waste to begin with".
Actually, I think this shows a lot of foresight on the part of the doctor. How many stories have we heard about the wrong organ being put in the wrong person? At least he was making sure it wasn't going to get mixed up and put into a healty person.
who cares? what if he engraved a turd? no one even would give a sh!t. LOL
You should this one to Leno or Letterman!
Is this uterus in a landfill or out for public display? Does anyone really care?
it's not malpractice since there was no injury sustained. the leg "burn" is probably some irritation from the bovie pad which is a necessary thing. if she can prove that she sustained damages then she'd have a case. she sustained nothing except for the promise of easy money quick. psychologically traumatizing? whatever. it's not in your body anymore. and it's not like he signed his own name. in fact his act probably reduces medical error associated with pathologists reading out dictations for the wrong specimen on the wrong patient. This patient has issues and is kinda vindictive
When I had my oldest daughter, the OBGYN I went to, had a pickled uterus in a jar on his desk. This really creeped me out. I kept wondering how he would feel if he came to my house, or place of business, and I had a pickled penis in a jar on my desk?
Again, this doctor is a nut case!!
Who's to say he's not trying to replace the petri dish with a “real” uterus for the use in invitro fertilization?? You know, sort of like Frankenstein?
You gotta know the notion is NOT that far fetched!!
You strike me as the type of person who would want to sue the water company for putting dihydrogen monoxide in your water.
It is a used uterus that they throw out. Why put names on it? Unless they needed biopsy. I would not be mad.
Hmmm. Well, if the uterus was near her body when he wrote it, then she has a lawsuit. It's quite feasible he put it between her legs and wrote on it. If he did it while it was still attached, I think she'd have internal injuries.
Why don't they just make some kind of label before the operation? A bag with their name on it, something. Branding – that's just weird any way you slice it. But I'll bet somewhere out there, there's a woman saying "cool, do that to mine, but don't remove it!" UGH!
As a woman, I will tell you that if a physician is removing my uterus, I don't give a rat's a$$ what he / she brands it with. Sheesh!
D doc is goood!
I agree with all the people that say this is dumb.
I'm a woman and I just paid money to have them do an ablasion so my dr "Branded" my entire uterus and it's still attached.
This really is a waste of money in litigation. The uterus was no longer being used and being thrown away. Next thing you know people will be suing that their hot coffee is too hot...oh wait...that happened already.
Sue happy country we have. DUMB
OMG!! He probably does not know his ASS from a hole in the ground either. Beam me up.