Doctor Recorded on Camera Berating and Cursing at Teen Patient

It’s a well-known fact that doctors face work days that are often filled with more patients and paperwork than they can typically fit into a standard workweek. And, 40-hours sounds like a holiday to many healthcare professionals. Despite that being the case, most MDs are able to perform their duties and evaluate their patients in a professional manner. But that’s sadly not always the case and one doc found her downright rude and abusive care toward one teen caught on camera.

Samuel Bardwell was rushed to the emergency room when he collapsed during basketball practice last year. After waiting for what he and his father said was more than three hours, Dr. Beth Keegstra finally arrived to evaluate him.

Bardwell says during the evaluation, Keegstra accused him of faking his symptoms in order to obtain narcotics and went to find a security guard. It was then that Bardwell told his dad to start recording because he had a sense that something bad was about to happen.

Dr. Keegstra is seen pulling on Bardwell’s arm and insisting he sit up. She goes on to berate him and mock him over what he says are his symptoms. They were apparently manifestations of an anxiety attack according to Bardwell.

More mocking

“Oh, he can’t inhale?” Keegstra laughs to someone off-camera. “He must be dead. Are you dead, Sir?”

While Dr. Keegstra and the medical field as a whole has seen unprecedented doctor shopping in order to obtain prescription medications as the opioid epidemic has swept across the United States, Keegstra’s actions are unequivocally unprofessional.

Dan Woods, the spokesperson for El Camino Hospital said in a statement that Dr. Keegstra’s “demeanor was unprofessional and not the standard we require of all who provide care.”

Woods went on to say the hospital sincerely apologized to the Bardwell’s.

Speculation has also risen that race may have played a factor as Keegstra is white and the Bardwell’s are a black family. But, regardless, Samuel Bardwell’s father, Donald, believes Dr. Keegstra shouldn’t be seeing patients at all.

“In my mind, I don’t think she should be practicing medicine at all,” Donald Bardwell stated, “because if it’s not a race thing and she treats everybody that way, then that’s a problem.”

Dr. Beth Keegstra was let go from El Camino Hospital following the incident and will not be able to be hired by any facilities in the same hospital group.