DOCUMENT: Bizarre

Doctor Branded Woman's Uterus After Surgery

OB/GYN lasered patient’s name in “friendly gesture”

Red Alinsod

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Branded Uterus Complaint

SEPTEMBER 13--After performing a hysterectomy last year, a California gynecologist used a cauterizing tool to brand his patient’s name on her removed uterus, an unorthodox move that the doctor calls a “friendly gesture,” but which the woman terms “despicable conduct” in a medical negligence lawsuit.

In a Superior Court lawsuit filed earlier this month, Ingrid Paulicivic, a 47-year-old hairdresser, charges that Dr. Red Alinsod used an “electrocautery device to carve and burn” the word “Ingrid” on her uterus, which was removed during a June 2009 operation at his Orange County office.

Paulicivic alleges that the branding was done for “no medically necessary purpose or reason” and that she somehow suffered burns on her legs while the uterus was being marked, according to her complaint. In an interview, Paulicivic’s lawyer, Devan Mullins, called the branding “inexcusably bizarre behavior,” adding that the 50-year-old Alinsod was “fooling around and having fun.”

While noting that he has never previously branded an organ or body part removed during surgery, Alinsod told TSG that he wrote Paulicivic’s name on the uterus because he “did not want to get it confused with others.” Asked whether this was a standard way of labeling body parts, Alinsod acknowledged that it was not. Usually, he said, a patient’s name is written on an accompanying blue sterile towel or a sterile piece of wood like a tongue depressor.

Alinsod contended that Paulicivic’s hysterectomy--which was done under general anesthesia--was “uneventful” and that the matter of the uterus branding was a “red herring” raised by her legal counsel. He claimed that he “felt comfortable putting her name on the uterus” since Paulicivic, pictured above, was a “good friend.”

Though Alinsod referred to the branding as a “gesture of friendship,” Mullins said that his client “had never met him prior to the first consult,” adding that she was actually an acquaintance of a receptionist who works in the doctor’s Laguna Beach office.

Mullins said that Paulicivic and her husband Joe, a photographer, learned of the branding during a follow-up visit with Alinsod, during which she complained about the burns suffered during the operation. After seeing Alinsod examining photos taken during the operation, the couple asked for copies of the images. Alinsod told TSG that he complied with the request since he had “nothing to hide.”

Alinsod, pictured at left, provided the couple with about 50 digital images, Mullins said, including photos showing the doctor writing on the uterus, as well as pictures of him holding the organ after “Ingrid” was branded on it. Mullins, who declined to provide TSG with any of the post-surgery photos, estimated that each of the letters in “Ingrid” was about one inch high and the name itself was about five inches wide.

According to a biography on his web site, Alinsod has practiced as an OB/GYN specialist for about 20 years, a period that included time in the United States Air Force (where he headed gynecologic services units at military bases in Nevada and California). “He was affectionately called a ‘Combat Gynecologist’ by his colleagues,” his bio reports. Alinsod’s web site is stocked with hundreds of graphic photos and videos recording the wide range of medical procedures he handles, including vaginal rejuvenation, hymen repair, and laser resurfacing.

Paulicivic’s lawsuit, which includes her husband as a plaintiff, does not specify monetary damages. Along with accusing Alinsod of medical negligence, the complaint charges the doctor with battery and contends that Joe Paulicivic has been “permanently injured and damaged” due to the resulting loss of consortium with his wife.

In early-2003, a group of women sued a Kentucky doctor for branding them during surgery. As seen on one surgical video, Dr. James Guiler, a University of Kentucky medical school graduate, used a cauterizing device to place the initials “UK” on the uterus of a patient undergoing a hysterectomy. The branding--which was done during surgery while the organ was in place--was reportedly a way for Guiler to remain oriented during the procedure. The outcome of those lawsuits could not be determined. (7 pages)

Comments (55)

I think it is hard to claim medical malpractice for something that was done to an organ already removed from someone's body. It maybe unprofessional behavior but not malpractice because it is not "practice of medicine". The OR staff could have played soccer with the removed uterus, it is still not malpractice if the procedure was uneventful. The burn could be malpractice but that is not the claim here. And why it is malpractice to have fun during something you like doing?
This was going on in Lexington, Kentucky in 2003 Check out this link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/831278/posts
Getting burned on one part of your body while electrocautery is being used somewhere else is actually quite realistic, despite the poorly written complaint here. Traditional Boveys require a grounding pad elsewhere on your body-- so current enters the body through the instrument and exits through that pad. The thigh is a common spot for it during abdominal surgery. If the pad was poorly attached, came loose and was contacting less area, or if she had very poor circulation, you'd get more heat there and likely a burn. I've seen this happen once, and though it was way too minor for a lawsuit, in this case they're saying he wrote an entire word, so who knows.
Male gyno's are perverts. A man's heart does not start physiologically start beating backward just because he gets to a certain college year in college. So neither does his sexual stimuli engine. Scientific fact( been proven many times): Men are visually stimulated, whereas woman are emotionally stimulated. And yes it is possible to act professional and do your job while..... I will not elaborate.
Gynecologists afraid of true stories about women's vaginas being mutilated during routine hysterectomies are nothing new. The loss of "consortium" means just that. Intercourse for the Paulicivics is now impossible. Certainly the basis of a lawsuit. Most of these are settled out of court. In the 1980's completely new and successful surgical techniques were developed in Los Angeles by Dr. Vicki G. Hufnagel. Author: "No More Hysterectomies". She was viciously persecuted, and drummed out of medicine, losing her license. I know the whole story. It was a set-up, so that butchers could continue to practise their chosen craft.