Ethel Easter was compelled to surreptitiously place a tape recorder in her hair before surgery because of the alleged sharp and foul tone the doctor used to tell her that she would have to wait two months to schedule her hernia surgery at a county operated hospital.
She was shocked what the tape recording produced after she awoke and got home, according to FOX 26 Houston:
“I was like, ‘I can’t wait for two months.’ I’m terribly ill, and he said ‘listen’ he got very abrupt. He said ‘who do you think you are? You have to wait just like everybody else’,” Easter said.
“This is my natural hair I had a weave at the time which is braid extensions and when I put my hair up I put the recorder right in my hair,” said Easter.
The doctors tone Easter says made her decide to tape record her surgery. Easter says some of the OR staff made disparaging remarks about her body. You can hear a nurse in the OR laughing about it.
“Did you see her belly button?” says a female voice on the tape which is followed by laughter.
On the tape you can hear a male OR staff member say to the anesthesiologist, “Precious meet Precious,”.
“It was Precious meet Precious, as though I was this big fat black woman,” Easter said.
Easter says you can hear some OR staff members refer to her as “always the queen” and then the surgeon repeats the phrase and says he feels sorry for her husband.
“When I heard the comments on the tape and listened to them I was shocked,” said community activist Quanell X. “I had no idea that doctors, anesthesiologists and nurses would carry themselves in this manner in an operating room.”
A spokesman for Harris Health System which oversees the county operated hospitals has declined to comment, conveniently using patient confidentiality laws.