A 17-year-old boy was arrested after he put on a white lab coat and masqueraded as a doctor at a Florida hospital for a month.
West Palm Beach police confronted the boy on Tuesday at St. Mary’s Medical Center, where he pretended to be an anesthesiologist.
Police were alerted to the youth’s dangerous deception when a patient alerted OB/GYN staffers that “a young black male who appeared to be a child was dressed as a doctor” inside one of the examination rooms.
When confronted by police, the boy introduced himself as a doctor. He wore a white lab coat bearing the St. Mary’s logo (the word “anesthesiology” was embroidered on the front. He also wore face masks at times.
Hospital employees told police they saw the boy in an examination room accompanied by an OB/GYN doctor.
That doctor told police the teen left a note on his desk asking if he could “shadow” the doctor on his rounds on the OB/GYN floor.
A security officer told police the teen was known as a “doctor,” and he had been seen around the building for about a month.
But apparently neither guard questioned whether the minor was, in fact, an actual medical professional.
The boy’s mother told police her son had psychiatric problems and he had stopped taking his medicine.
A hospital spokesman denied the teenager had contact with patients or gained access to restricted medical care areas. But it’s obvious that he did.
Pop superstar Celine Dion gave birth to her twins at the same hospital in 2010.
