Arthur Zilberstein, a Seattle based anesthesiologist, has had his license suspended by the Washington state medical board after being accused of sexting during surgery.

Zilberstein Allegedly Sent Sexual Texts Mid-Surgery

According to official documents filed June 3, Zilberstein is accused of endangering patients by sexting while working at the Swedish Medical Center. According to the Washington State Department of Heath, charges against Zilberstein stem from between April and August of 2013, when he allegedly sent sexual text messages mid surgery on more than one occasion. According to the report, Zilberstein once carried on a sexual text conversation over 45 separate messages.

“Respondent’s lack of focus on patient care while providing anesthesia services for hospital based surgical procedures routinely fell below the standard of care and put patients at unreasonable risk or harm,” reads the original statement of charges against Zilberstein.

Not only did Zilberstein engage in sexting while on the job, but he also reportedly got a hold of images from patients’ medical records.

“According to the charges, Zilberstein frequently exchanged sexually explicit texts during surgery when he was the responsible anesthesiologist; improperly accessed medical-record imaging for sexual gratification; and had sexual encounters at his workplace,” reads the statement from the Washington State Department of Health.

Other charges suggest that Zilberstein was somehow involved in the mishandling and illegal distribution of prescription drugs, and had issued at least 29 prescriptions that were unauthorized and without proper medical evaluation. One patient, identified as Patient Z in the legal documents, appears to have been carrying on an affair with Zilberstein. Zilberstein is accused of sending Patient Z selfies of himself wearing hospital scrubs and his hospital badge, with his genitals uncovered. One of these selfies was sent while Zilberstein was on duty and in charge of eight surgeries.

The charges don’t stop there. Zilberstein has also been accused of making racist remarks regarding a patient and of lying to investigators.

Zilberstein Medical License Suspended

According to the Washington State Department of Health, Zilberstein has 20 days to respond to these allegations and request a hearing on the validity of his medical license.

“The safety of our patients is our number one priority. Once we learned that the state had suspended the physician’s medical license, the physician’s medical staff membership and privileges were immediately suspended. We just recently learned of these allegations and are conducting our own internal review of the physician, who is not directly employed by Swedish,” said Swedish Medical Center spokesman Clay Holtzman.

Zilberstein has not yet commented on the matter.

Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.