A Florida teenager (who is not Neil Patrick Harris, aka Doogie Howser) wearing a white lab coat fooled doctors into believing he was an actual physician at a Florida hospital for a month, authorities say.
The boy, whose name was redacted from a police report, was busted by cops on Tuesday afternoon at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
And yes, this really happened.
From the Smoking Gun:
The phony physician’s gambit unraveled after a patient alerted OB/GYN staffers that “a young black male who appeared to be a child was dressed as a doctor” and was inside a nearby examination room, police noted.
The boy was outfitted in a white lab coat bearing the St. Mary’s logo (the word “anesthesiology” was embroidered on the garment’s front side). The imposter also “had a stethoscope around his neck and a face mask,”according to the report.
Hospital workers told police that the teenager was inside an exam room while an actual doctor, Sebastian Kent, conducted a patient examination.
Somebody is getting fired.
As detailed in the police report, cops spoke to security guard Christian D’Amato, who said the teenager “is known around the hospital as a ‘doctor,'” and had been “seen on several floors of the hospital by several hospital employees entering patients rooms and talking to hospital employees.”
But D’Amato apparently never questioned whether the minor was, in fact, an actual medical professional.
Police reported that “multiple” witnesses said they had spotted the teenager “walking around the hospital for approximately one month pretending to be a doctor.”
The hospital staff declined to pursue charges against the teenager — his mother told police her son is “under the care of a doctor” and refuses to take prescribed medicine.
SOURCE: Smoking Gun | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
