I was wondering if anyone heard about this?

A female patient has filed suit against a Burlington County surgeon, accusing him of placing a temporary tattoo of a red rose on her lower abdomen while she was under anesthesia.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Elizabeth Mateo of Pennsauken in Camden Superior Court on Tuesday alleges that orthopedic surgeon Steven Kirshner, who has offices in Lumberton and Evesham, applied the “rub-on” tattoo below her panty line after performing back surgery at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly on April 28.

Mateo's attorney, Greg Shivers of Cherry Hill, said his client and her husband were shocked to find the tattoo on her body a day after the surgery.

“She and her husband were freaked out,” Shivers said. “She had just gotten out of the hospital after spending a day in there heavily medicated and she had no idea where the tattoo came from.”

Shivers said, in order to put the tattoo on her lower belly, “the act necessarily required the doctor to lift up the patient's hospital gown, knowing that she was not wearing undergarments because of the surgery.”

Kirshner admitted to putting the tattoo on his patient.

“(Kirshner) had performed successful surgery, and he thought it would make the patient feel better. Obviously it did not,” Kirshner's attorney Robert Agre of Haddonfield said.

Agre said Kirshner, who lives in Lumberton, has placed temporary tattoos on other patients after surgery and has had only positive responses.


“He certainly didn't intend to offend anyone,” Agre said. “He intended nothing more than to cheer her up after surgery.”

The lawsuit accuses Kirshner of invasion of privacy, battery and violations of the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners regulations prohibiting sexual contact, unchaperoned access to unclothed patients and voyeurism. Mateo is seeking compensatory and punitive damages as well as appropriate administrative action against Kirshner's medical license.

Shivers said his client believes the hospital acted appropriately and its staff was unaware of the incident before the report by the patient.

However, Agre said there were several medical personnel in the operating room when the washable tattoo was placed on Mateo.

Agre said Kirshner placed the tattoo on Mateo's belly as “a matter of convenience” since there were intravenous lines still hooked up to her arms.

“Had his motives been ill-intended he wouldn't have affixed this sticker on her with all those people still in the operating room,” Agre said.

He said Kirshner is stunned that a washable tattoo has resulted in a lawsuit.

“Obviously, he's upset, because he believes what he did was good-spirited,” Agre said.

I'd probably laugh!

And that is my point entirely.