Sacramento doctor who appeared on video during surgery pays fine to avoid new court date
A Sacramento plastic surgeon, whose mid-operation Zoom call before a traffic court judge last week garnered national headlines, quietly resolved his case Monday morning in Sacramento Superior Court.
Dr. Scott Green is off the hook for what was to be a Thursday court date. Court officials Monday said Green paid fines and fees for the speeding and license tag violations he faced and his traffic trial was vacated.
But Medical Board of California officials have since said they will look into the doctor’s livestreamed multitasking while academics and others are weighing in on the appearance’s ethical implications.
“You don’t need someone who has studied ethics to give an informed opinion. He’s operating on a patient,” said Lou Matz, chair of the Department of Philosophy at Pacific McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. “He’s ethically obligated to devote his full attention to that.”
Green has not responded to The Sacramento Bee’s requests for comment. In a statement provided Friday by medical board spokesman Carlos Villatoro, board officials “expect physicians to follow the standard of care when treating their patients.”
Viewers of Sacramento Superior Court’s Feb. 25 proceedings livestreamed on the court’s YouTube channel from Carol Miller Justice Center’s Department 87 saw a masked Green clad in surgical scrubs and tending to a patient out of view of a camera.
Green faced October violations of speeding, driving without a visible license plate and failure to appear at the Thursday hearing.
Traffic trials in California are required by law to be open to the public. With limited public access to courtrooms due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the court’s proceedings are livestreamed.
Courtrooms across the state have been streaming hearings since last March when the state Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye directed California’s courts to begin using video technology in response to the health crisis.
“Yes, I’m in an operating room right now,” Green told a courtroom clerk. “I’m available for trial. Go right ahead.”
The scene surprised Sacramento Superior Court Commissioner Gary Link, who confirmed that he saw the surgeon at work and quickly rescheduled the date.
“I do not feel comfortable for the welfare of a patient if you’re in the process of operating,” Link told Green over the sounds of whirring, beeping medical machinery.
Green assured Link he was ready to proceed. After all, he said, he had a second surgeon at the table working beside him.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Link said. “I’m going to come up with a different date — when you’re not actively involved or participating and attending to the needs of a patient. ... I’m concerned about the welfare of the patient based on what I’m seeing.”
Matz voiced similar concern on Monday.
“It’s similar to the safety of flight operations,” he said. “You have a pilot and a co-pilot. Yes, the pilot is flying the plane, but you need two people to monitor the safety of the aircraft.”
By the weekend, the surreal scene of institutions colliding — legal and medical; black robe and green scrubs — captured headlines across the country and abroad, the images seemingly another sign of our Zoom-dominated, pandemic-isolated, work-from-home moment.
It’s but the latest awkward scene stemming from video streamed court proceedings, joining the traffic court defendant who appeared for his Sacramento court hearing last month from his barber’s chair; and the Texas attorney who declared to a judge last month “I am not a cat” after finding his visage had been replaced by a Zoom filter depicting a kitten.
On Monday, Matz was still left shaking his head.
“Do a survey. If I said I was settling a legal matter while performing surgery on you, there wouldn’t be one person who would consent,” Matz said. “If the doctor disclosed that, I don’t think the patient would consent.”
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