Health is no joking matter, as a Penn doctor recently found.
Penn Medicine’s John Kelly published what some are calling a “misguided” humor column in an issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine.
A stand-up comic and comedy writer in his free time, Kelly wrote a piece that is a compilation of fat patient jokes. One-liners include, “You should worry about performing surgery on the super-sized if there is a comma in your patient’s body weight,” and doctors should worry about operating on patients “who have more chins than a Chinese phone book.”
Kelly has since apologized for his actions, saying in an Oct. 22 interview for the blog FormerFatDudes.com that he did not intend to be offensive. “I think I was running up against a deadline and threw some jokes together,” he said.
“I blew it,” he added.
The column — first published in August — was taken off _Outpatient Surgery Magazine_’s website on Oct. 24 due to recent outrage.
According to Kelly, Outpatient Surgery Magazine doesn’t have strict guidelines for what writers can and cannot write. It’s up to the writer to choose a topic, and the magazine will then edit the resulting article.
Kelly will remain as a physician at Penn. Penn Medicine wrote in an official statement that he is “a respected orthopaedic surgeon.” Penn Medicine spokeswoman Susan Philips told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Kelly has high patient-satisfaction ratings at Penn.
However, Penn Medicine does not condone his actions. They also stated that “his misguided attempt at humor, while done on his own time, does not in any way reflect our views or values.” The statement also said that Kelly met with clinical leadership who counseled him on his actions.
