Indiana Surgeon Attacked Assistant in Operating Room, Asked ‘How Does That Feel?': Report

The doctor allegedly clamped an assistant's right index finger with a medical tool and asked “How does that feel?”

An Indiana orthopedic surgeon has been charged with clamping an assistant’s finger with a medical instrument and making her bleed in a surgical room, the Times of Northwest Indiana is reporting.

Dr. Joseph B. Koscielniak Jr., 63, of Merrillville, was charged Sept. 16 in Hobart City Court with misdemeanor battery, the paper reports.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Times, Koscielniak was in a surgery room at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart the afternoon of Aug. 30 and became upset about a medical instrument.

The paper reports the doctor became verbally abusive toward a surgical team and threw multiple instruments and allegedly proclaimed “I am going to punch you, push you or knock you to the ground.”

When a female assistant stood up to Koscielniak he allegedly clamped her right index finger with a medical tool and asked “How does that feel?”

The woman was reportedly bleeding from the hand in the operating room.

Koscielniak then allegedly threw a “mallet” toward the surgical cart, striking the assistant’s right wrist, the affidavit reportedly reads.

The assistant then reported the incident to her supervisor and was sent to receive medical treatment.

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