A medical student is on an "extended leave" after she bragged on Twitter about intentionally missing a patient's vein during a blood draw so he would have to get jabbed twice.
Kychelle Del Rosario, a transgender ally and fourth-year med student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, reportedly said she intentionally abused the patient because he disrespected a pronoun pin she was wearing.
"I had a patient I was doing a blood draw on see my pronoun pin and loudly laugh to the staff 'She/Her? Well of course it is! What other pronouns even are there? It?' I missed his vein so he had to get stuck twice," Del Rosario said in a tweet on March 29, according to The Post Millennial.
The medical school issued a statement after the tweet was brought to its attention.
"This student's tweet does not reflect how Wake Forest University School of Medicine treats patients and provides patient care. We are taking measures to address this with the student," the statement said.
In a follow-up statement, the school said a review determined that Del Rosario "had no intention to harm the patient" and that she followed the medical center's protocols. It further suggested that her tweet was a misrepresentation of the incident.
"Wake Forest School of Medicine has completed a thorough review of the patient encounter with our medical student who recently made an inaccurate statement on social media," Wake Health spokeswoman Paula Faria told Fox News. "The School and the student have agreed upon her taking an extended leave. During this time the student will not participate in any patient care activities."
The school also sent an email to students that criticized "unkind people" who are passing judgement on Del Rosario and excusing the patient's hateful behavior.
"It is appalling that the vast majority of the media coverage surrounding Del Rosario’s tweet is critiquing her lack of professionalism rather than her patient’s display of bigotry," the email said, according to Fox News. "There's been no known follow-up with the patient concerning the problematic nature of their comments, or even any documentation of their inappropriate behavior."
Wake Forest's campus newspaper published an apology from Del Rosario, who said she was reflecting on "responsible social media use as a professional."
"I was performing a blood draw on a patient and during our conversation they had shown dismay at my pronoun pin. I calmly shared my thoughts about pronouns and did not escalate the situation further. When I was doing the blood draw, I missed the first time due to my inexperience as a student, and per our policy, my supervisor performed the successful blood draw the second time. During this encounter, I never intended to harm the patient," she said. "I am truly sorry for poorly representing our school and our health system."
It's not clear how long Del Rosario's leave will last or if she is facing disciplinary action.
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