No explanation, no consent: Surgeon suspended for touching breasts of two female patients

An Ontario doctor who touched the breasts of two female patients without their consent has been suspended for five months and ordered to pay $6,000 in hearing costs. Dr. David Lee James Wardle, a plastic surgeon in Kingston, Ont., admitted he acted in a way that was disgraceful, dishonourable and unprofessional. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario had also charged him initially with sexual abuse of a patient, but subsequently withdrew this allegation, according to the decision document issued by the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal. In addition to the five-month suspension and costs, Dr. Wardle must complete a patient interactions course within six months of the order, issued last December but released on Feb. 3. He's required to provide his certificate of attendance within a month of completing the course. Read: Before and after: Plastic surgeon hit with $17,500 fine over misleading ads Dr. Wardle’s misconduct was brought to the college’s attention by two patients. One saw Dr. Wardle in 2020 for abdominoplasty, liposuction and correction of a diastasis recti. She complained that during a pre-operative assessment Dr. Wardle grazed her left breast with his hand. Later that day, during the operation, Dr. Wardle repositioned the patient’s left breast to move an electrocardiogram lead. He did this without warning or obtaining the patient’s consent, wrote the tribunal. Dr. Wardle touched the patient’s breast again during a post-operative visit. On this occasion, Dr. Wardle lifted the patient’s shirt and moved one cup of her bra to expose her right breast. According to the decision document, he did this on the assumption that he had operated on the patient’s breast, which he had not. Dr. Wardle did not acknowledge or apologize for this mistake, wrote the tribunal. Read: Fake doctor caught in sting operation injecting guests at Botox-and-filler party gets sent back to jail Another patient, who consulted with Dr. Wardle about severe injuries to her face, told the college that he made a joke about cosmetic surgery being a slippery slope and said her next procedure might be for her breasts. Dr. Wardle then offered to examine the patient’s breasts and asked her to pull down the top of her dress and move her bra. He remained in the room while she did this. Without providing an explanation or obtaining the patient’s consent, he examined her breasts and nipples. On a subsequent visit the following year, Dr. Wardle touched the patient’s legs while examining her face. She did not return to see him and sought further care for her facial injuries from another doctor. “Your failure to obtain consent with two patients, to respect their dignity and to offer appropriate privacy, to recognize boundaries in your clinical encounters and, in one case, to even remember what surgery you had performed signals a lack of concern,” the tribunal told Dr. Wardle during his penalty hearing. “Furthermore, it demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the inherent power imbalance in the physician-patient relationship. Your conduct with these patients caused them sufficient distress that they made formal college complaints.” While Dr. Wardle had no previous disciplinary history with the Ontario college, the tribunal noted that during a procedural observation of a facial cosmetic surgery in June 2021, certain members of the college’s out-of-hospital premises inspection program observed him placing his left hand on the female patient’s upper chest and his right hand on her abdomen. This led to the college’s inquiries, complaints and reports committee advising Dr. Wardle about the risks of erroneous interpretation of touching patients, even if he was doing this to show compassion or to provide reassurance. Read: Doctor who chose to do elective surgery instead of attending to severely bleeding patient must pay $85,000 in costs

No explanation, no consent: Surgeon suspended for touching breasts of two female patients

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