A medical student who was accused of deliberately injuring one of her patients has been placed on extended leave after bragging about her actions on the internet.
Kychelle Del Rosario is a Wake Forest University student of medicine and trainee doctor who came under fire after claiming that she had missed a vein when taking blood from one of her patients after the man mocked her pronoun badge.
“I had a patient I was doing a blood draw on see my pronoun pin and loudly laugh to the staff ‘She/Her? Well of course it is! What other pronouns even are there? It?’ I missed his vein so he had to get stuck twice,” the student wrote in her viral Twitter post.
Soon enough, people called on the North Carolina university to investigate Rosario’s claims and take disciplinary actions against the student.
Following a thorough review, however, Wake Forest University defended its student saying she “had no intention to harm” her patient.
“Wake Forest School of Medicine has completed a thorough review of the patient encounter with our medical student who recently made an inaccurate statement on social media,” school officials said in a statement sent to Gregg Re, the producer of Tucker Carlson Tonight.
“The review determined that the student had no intention to harm the patient and followed Medical Center protocols.
“The School and the student have agreed upon her taking an extended leave. During this time the student will not participate in any patient care activities.”
Defending the aspiring doctor were also her fellow students who slammed the patient for mocking Rosario’s pronoun badge while calling the student “professional.”
“[I] heard this story firsthand weeks ago and [it] seems like [people] are misinterpreting (understandably from the phrasing),” future doctor Ewen Liu wrote.
“To clarify, the missed stick was COMPLETELY an accident and just seemed ‘karma-tic.’ She is kind and professional and would never harm anyone intentionally.”
Meanwhile, Del Rosario apologized for her choice of words while insisting she missed her patient’s vein by accident due to her inexperience.
“I am writing this as an apology for a very irresponsible tweet that I sent on Twitter that I highly regret. For the event mentioned in the tweet, I was performing a blood draw on a patient and during our conversation they had shown dismay at my pronoun pin,” she explained.
“I calmly shared my thoughts about pronouns and did not escalate the situation further. When I was doing the blood draw, I missed the first time due to my inexperience as a student, and per our policy, my supervisor performed the successful blood draw the second time.
“During this encounter, I never intended to harm the patient. I am truly sorry for poorly representing our school and our health system.”
She added: “I will reflect on responsible social media use as a professional and my duty to care for all my patients, regardless of any differences of belief.”
What are your thoughts on this matter? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends. For more news and stories, follow us on Facebook!