Doctor May Have Been Drunk In Operating Room
Doc May Have Been Drunk in Operating Room
Thursday, March 9, 2006 1:05 PM EST
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The chief of neurosurgery at Highland Hospital was wrestled to an operating room floor by deputies and arrested after allegedly throwing a drunken fit when a nurse refused to let him operate, authorities said.
Federico Castro-Moure, 45, was arrested Monday night on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol and interfering with the duty of officers, said Alameda County sheriff's Lt. Jim Knudson.
Castro-Moure became belligerent after insisting on operating on a man who broke his ankles and fractured his spine in a two-story fall, according to the sheriff's department.
Two other surgeons had determined the injuries were not life-threatening, but Castro-Moure insisted the man would die if he did not receive immediate attention, the report said.
He "threw a fit" and began yelling and cursing at staff when they told him equipment for the procedure needed to be transferred from another hospital, according to the report. When the surgical instruments arrived, a nurse refused to allow Castro-Moure to operate until they could be sterilized.
Castro-Moure threatened the nurse by punching his fist in his hand. He took a swing at deputies after they were called to intervene.
"Do you know that I am a (expletive) doctor, and I'm going to do what I want," he said, according to a witness.
He was booked into Glenn Dyer Detention Facility in Oakland and was released several hours later in lieu of $4,000 bail, a jail official said Thursday morning.
Castro-Moure was placed on leave while the hospital investigates the matter, hospital spokesman David Cone said.
A woman who answered the phone at Castro-Moure's home Thursday morning said the doctor had no comment.
