Three month suspension for a gesture with sexual connotations

On the evening of June 1, 2018, in the emergency department of Saint-Jérôme regional hospital just north of Montreal, two nurses jokingly commented on the phallic shape of a laryngeal mask. A few minutes later, Dr. Billy Houde, who had overheard the conversation, grabbed the laryngeal mask and approached one of the nurses. According to the disciplinary judgment, the doctor allegedly told this nurse that he had seen a video in which two women perform fellatio on a man but one of the women had tombé dans la lune (fallen asleep) so he hit her in the face with his penis to wake her up. The general practitioner then placed the laryngeal mask at pelvis level and tried to hit her in the face with this tube for a few seconds. The nurse, sitting and leaning against a counter, put her hands in front of her and said “no, no, no.” She told the disciplinary council she wanted to scream but it was night. The doctor laughed and walked off. Surprised, angry and offended, the nurse wrote a letter to the department head to denounce this event. Although he admitted that the gesture was inappropriate, Dr. Houde defended himself by explaining that the night of this event, the atmosphere was jokey; that he only wanted to make a harmless joke and that he never wanted to “flirt, assault her, upset her.” It was really just a “joke,” he said. In addition, the family doctor says he had in mind the beginning of the movie Happy Gilmore. In this film, actor Adam Sandler uses different objects—such as a cone, a broomstick, and a hockey stick—between his legs to represent a penis. According to Dr. Houde, the extract of this film that he filed in evidence does not justify the gesture, but explains it. Read: Quebec doctor loses licence over bare-handed vaginal exams and other issues Disciplinary council For the disciplinary council, neither this film nor the context could explain the gesture. “The council does not see it as a harmless joke, but rather an aggressive gesture with sexual connotations. . . . The council considers that such a gesture made in the exercise of the profession, in the care environment, moreover, in the context of a relationship of authority cannot be trivialized.” Following the event, the nurse said she was stressed about working with this doctor, suffered from insomnia and isolation at work. The disciplinary council imposed a three-month suspension on Dr. Houde starting Oct. 18 if no appeal is filed by then. In addition, the doctor was recently sentenced, in another file, to four months of suspension for having failed, in May 2018, to develop his diagnosis with the greatest attention and for having failed to refer his 14-year-old patient to another doctor. The two sanctions will be served concurrently. Originally ran on our sister brand in Quebec, Profession Santé. Translated from French.

Three month suspension for a gesture with sexual connotations

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