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A group of California healthcare workers were fired after a TikTok video showing them apparently mocking bodily fluid stains left on exam tables went viral.
The since-deleted video shared over the weekend, and captioned “Guess the substance,” showed employees at Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara posing with what appeared to be bodily fluids left behind by patients on exam tables, KTLA reported.
“Are patients allowed to leave you guys gifts?” the employees wrote in a TikTok video, along with an image of them all smiling.
Five images then follow of various staffers posing mockingly next to what appears to be discharge left behind on exam tables.
In the first photo, a joyful female worker gives a thumbs-up while standing next to a small stain, with the text “yes!” on top.
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The now-deleted TikTok has sparked anger online. (TikTok)
“And we love them so much,” reads the text on the second image, showing another beaming employee next to a wet spot on an exam table.
The next images, showing two more cheery workers, note the so-called “gifts” come in “all shapes and sizes” and “all shades and opacities.”
The final photo, showing a group of employees huddled around an exam table with a stain, is captioned: “Make sure to leave your healthcare workers sweet gifts like these!”
Sutter Health, which includes Sansum Clinic, said in a statement Wednesday that the employees involved in the “inappropriate and insensitive photos posted on social media” had been fired.
“This unacceptable behavior is an outright violation of our policies, shows a lack of respect for our patients and will not be tolerated,” Sutter Health said.
In a statement to KTLA, the healthcare network stated that the person who shared the TikTok and appeared in the viral clip hadn’t worked for the facility in two months.
Though the TikTok was quickly deleted, screen grabs and screen recordings of the video continued to circulate on social media this week, as users called for the workers to be fired.
The horrifying clip also gained traction on the r/Santabarbara Reddit page, where users slammed the incident as “beyond unprofessional” and “unethical.”
“This team is going to rue the day they posted this dehumanizing garbage,” one user wrote, noting they were going to report the incident to Sutter executives.
Another commentator added: “I didn’t have a good feeling from Sutter Health when I went there.”
Users expressed outrage over medical professionals being so unprofessional, with one person writing, “These people know they don’t have to work in healthcare right? Makes me so sad that we can’t even trust anyone at the doctors either way very scary and sad.”
“Every single employee who participated in these videos needs to have their license revoked,” another person wrote. “Fired isn’t enough.”
Sutter Health said that any patients who would like to discuss their healthcare experience can email patientadvocacy@sutterhealth.org.
Patients who believe their privacy or dignity was violated can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights at hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint.