A teenage boy spent a week examining patients in a Florida hospital. It may sound like the plot of a certain TV show, but Doogie Howser he is not.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that 17-year-old Matthew Scheidt was arrested last Friday for impersonating a physician’s assistant and actually examining patients at the Osceola Regional Medical Center ER.
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Scheidt had reportedly told hospital personnel that he was 23 years old and affiliated with a program at Nova Southeastern University. He claimed that he worked as a physician’s assistant for Surgical Management Group but would need a new ID badge because the group had changed their name to Osceola Surgical Associates. And they apparently believed him, because soon enough he was making rounds through the emergency room dressed in scrubs and lab coat.
Though it’s not quite clear just how many patients the teen attended to, the Sentinel reports that during his rounds, “Scheidt interviewed patients, read through confidential medical records, performed physical exams on disrobed male patients, cleaned wounds, restrained a combative patient and performed CPR on a patient in cardiac arrest.”
And if impersonating a medical professional wasn’t ballsy enough, the boy also claimed he was an undercover deputy sheriff working on a top-secret investigation when he was confronted by a suspicious staff member. Fortunately it looks like playtime’s over for Scheidt; he’s being charged with five counts of impersonation.