Patient Sues Eye Doctor, Claims His Assistant Licked Her Toes

Well, this post is pretty much written—I can’t do better than that. But here are details: a Illinois woman named Roman Tesfaye alleges that when she went for an eye exam this past summer, the assistant, Joseph Vernell Jr., put a strip over her eyes and told her to keep them closed for 5-7 minutes. Then the toe-licking happened.

He then reclined the examination chair and raised her legs onto another chair, at which point Tesfaye “felt her right shoe fall off,” the suit states.

“Ms. Tesfaye felt something touching her toes,” according to the suit. “After feeling the toe-touching several times, she opened her eyes and witnessed Mr. Vernell stand up and pull his shirt down.”

When she accused him of licking her toes, Vernell allegedly replied, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I was checking your sugar level,” the suit states.

The lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court, “seeks in excess of $50,000 in damages for battery and emotional distress.” We suggest consumers wear lace-ups when going to the eye doctor, for their own safety.

“Suit alleges patient’s toes were licked during eye exam in Skokie” [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: Getty)

Comments

  1. Rectilinear Propagation says:

    Holy crap!

  2. Anitra says:

    My best guess is that this woman has diabetes. Why else would the doctor think she wouldn’t be able to feel… whatever he was doing to her toes, and then make the excuse about “blood sugar level” ?

    Still, creepy and weird.

  3. bluebuilder says:

    How do you even prove something like that?

  4. Ghede says:

    I know they used to drink piss to test sugar levels, but this is ridiculous. The only way you would be able to taste sugar on the skin is if you are treating a gingerbread man.

  5. weakdome says:

    Wait. What man pulls his shirt DOWN and not UP?
    Seriously. The big opening is at the bottom. It gets all stretched out of shape if you pull it DOWN over your shoulders. If it’s a button-up shirt… you UN BUTTON it – you still don’t pull it DOWN. That’s quite awkward.

  6. LeJerque says:

    @weakdome: I think it’s being implied that the shirt *was* pulled up, while Dr. Tongue was doing whatever it was he was doing. When the patient caught him, he quickly pulled it back down, as if to pretend nothing was wrong.

    And clearly, nothing was wrong. He was checking her eyesight by verifying the sugar level in her toes, which as any doctor can tell you, may only be effectively done by exposing the tiny sugar receptors present in one’s chest hair.

    You wouldn’t understand. It’s SCIENCE.

  7. Nemesis_Enforcer says:

    I have a friend who is into feet. He goes to parties where they have like 5 girls and 30 guys. They pay the girls to do whatever to thier feet. Its really weird especially from the pics I saw most of the women were not pretty, but supposedly they have pretty feet. Ehh whatever I think its nasty but he is all over it.

  8. lostalaska says:

    That’s the beauty of science, it’s whatever we want it to be…

    Yeah, my old eye exam place had warning signs in the lobby to watch out for rogue toe suckers.

  9. weakdome says:

    I knew a lady who taught in Nepal, she said one of her students would follow her around (they all wore sandals) and when she turned her back he would lie down on the ground and lick her feet. Guess it starts early.

  10. @weakdome: That’s hilarious–it’s like he was a little Nepalese ghost from Super Mario Bros.