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February 28, 2021 Green gown, surgical mask, cap on the hair and the background noise of medical equipment in the operating room: this is how a Californian surgeon appeared at the online hearing of the trial in which he was called to answer for violation of the traffic code.
It happened in California in Sacramento last Thursday and it was told by a local newspaper, the Sacramento Bee.
The chancellor could not believe his eyes.
"Hello, Mr. Green. Are you available for rehearsal? I think you're in the operating room right now."
"I am, sir", he replied impassively.
The clerk reminded the doctor, Scott Green, that the hearing was being streamed live because road trials must be public.
He seemed to agree, but in the meantime he continued his work, head down.
At a certain point, the judge, Gary Link, appeared on the screen and immediately made it clear that he did not want to go on because he was interested in "the patient's well-being": "I don't feel comfortable - he added - if you operate while you are judged ".
The surgeon tried to justify himself: "Next door I have another surgeon who is doing the surgery
with me: so I can hear and allow them to do the surgery anyway".
But at that point it was the judge who pulled back and postponed the hearing: "We want to keep people healthy, we want to keep them alive," he added.
The Californian Medical Association has announced that it will take care of the incident and added that it expects "doctors to follow the required standard when caring for their patients".
But the Californian one is only the latest in a series of curious episodes that occurred (and recorded) in the chats on Zoom or in any case online, at a time when, due to Covid, many exchanges and job opportunities take place not in person but in distance.
In recent weeks, a lawyer has been unable, despite his best efforts, to remove the screensaver with the image of a cat.
Finally, exhausted, he begged the judge to go on anyway: "I'm here, in flesh and blood, I'm not a cat".