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Washington Hospital Denies Claim Of Nude Patient Photos

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WASHINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) -- Nude photos allegedly taken of a patient on an operating table at Washington Hospital has brought a strong denial from hospital officials the day after KDKA-TV first reported the complaint.

"She showed me four to six photos of me unconscious in the OR being prepped for surgery," Sheila Harosky, of Charleroi, told KDKA's Jon Delano on Wednesday. "There was my private parts. There was everything, everything that you see in the OR."

Harosky, who was then an employee at the hospital, has filed a 17-count lawsuit against the hospital and staff for invasion of privacy, among other claims, after a scrub nurse took photos of her naked.

"I trusted my medical personnel. That's what hurts so bad," she said.

But in a statement to KDKA-TV on Thursday, the hospital denies the complaint:

"Washington Health System disputes the version of events that has been published and intends to defend the claim," said Hospital vice president Larry Pantuso. "[Harosky] initiated and participated in the circumstances giving rise to her lawsuit by bringing fake intestines into the OR and requesting that they be placed on her abdomen at the time of the surgical procedure as a practical joke."

With Halloween-like plastic guts, Harosky admits she played a joke on Dr. Dennis Brown, her surgeon.

"He was the jokester throughout the hospital," she says. "This was on my stomach where I put it, and they were aware of the joke in pre-op because that's 'oh can't wait to get him,' you know."

Harosky says this didn't give anyone permission to take photos and certainly not of her genitals.

The hospital tells KDKA it took appropriate action: firing the nurse who took the pictures, and Dr. Brown is no longer performing surgery.

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