Surgeon Who Removed Object From Man’s Rectum Sues Hospital For Interrogating Her About Sex Life

A female surgeon has filed a lawsuit against the administrators of New York-Presbyterian Hospital for grilling her about her sex life after she saved a man who had a "foreign object" stuck inside his rectum.

Colorectal surgeon Dr. Deborah Keller said the incident happened in February 2020 when she was called in multiple times to assist a patient with an object inside his anus. She finally helped successfully extract the unidentified item from the patient’s body, reported New York Post.

In her Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit, Dr. Keller claims she was put on administrative leave the next day, and later "interrogated" by hospital administrators.

She alleged the administrators "sexualized" the object, and also questioned whether Keller was having sex with the male surgeon in charge of the patient’s care. They also accused her of violating the man’s privacy by circulating an image of the object.

According to Keller, the inquisition by the hospital’s internal hearing committee was "demeaning and embarrassing."

She declined to discuss the object and claimed doctors "don’t really know" what the item was.

“They kept using inappropriate terms for the foreign [object], it was just getting contentious and questions that just didn’t have anything to do with the practice of medicine or patient care or colorectal surgery, making what I do seem like a joke," said Keller.

She said she had already prepared herself for the procedure, and was not taking pictures.

In the lawsuit, Dr. Keller alleged the male doctor in charge of the patient’s case had the patient's permission to take photos and videos for educational purposes. Dr. Mark Kiely called Keller to help "due to her recognized expertise," she said in court papers.

However, Dr. Kiely was never interrogated about the incident, and was initially suspended but reinstated later.

She also denied having a sexual relationship with her colleague. However, Dr. Keller said in the lawsuit she sent a picture of the unidentified object to a surgical resident, only to show it had to be removed in an operating room.

She alleged she was the only woman involved in the case, and the only one who lost her job. Dr. Keller said she was targeted because of eight prior complaints of gender discrimination she had filed against her boss, New York-Presbyterian Chief of Colorectal Surgery Pokala Ravi Kiran.

The New York-Presbyterian Hospital has not released any comment on the lawsuit or Dr. Keller's complaints of gender discrimination.