Woman Sues Hospital Over Naked Photos Taken During Her Surgery

A Pennsylvania woman sued Washington Hospital, where she had a hernia surgery performed last year. The suit claims it was later revealed to her that photos she did not consent to were taken of her naked body in the operating room.

Sheila Harosky was an operating room secretary at the hospital where her surgery was performed and after returning to work a colleague showed her photos of her surgery, showing her naked and unconscious body, on a cell phone, she says.

She filed a lawsuit in Washington County Common Pleas Court claiming invasion of privacy, medical malpractice, among other claims against the hospital itself as well as the doctor who performed her surgery, Dr. Dennis Brown, and the colleague who showed her the photo, Sharon Bourgo.

“Washington Health System disputes the version of events that has been published and intends to defend the claim,” the health system said in a statement to Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Harosky brought an object, she says a fake scar, into the operating room to play a practical joke on her colleagues during her operation but she says that she did not consent to being photographed. The hospital claims though that the joke precipitated the photo. “Unfortunately, the object was photographed and that image was shared,” Washington Health said, the Trib-Review reported.

When the nurse who showed her the photo was fired following a complain, Harosky said she was subject to harassment at work and could no longer perform in her job. She also said the human resources department did not transfer her out of her operating room position and that after she took three months of leave she was let go by the hospital.