Transgender woman records conversation of surgical staff that occured while she was unconscious [View all]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/nyregion/transgender-patient-records-during-cancer-surgery.html

It frustrated her that she was unconscious at the most crucial moments — as the surgeon removed each cancerous mass. What if the surgeon said something important, a stray comment that no one bothered to tell her about after the anesthesia wore off? She decided to record her next surgery, on March 7, 2022, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the renowned Manhattan hospital.

_____


The surgeon removed part of her lung. She did not get around to playing the recording until a few weeks later. Though the audio was muffled, she could follow some of what the surgical team was saying before the procedure began. Someone was going out for coffee — did anyone want something from Starbucks? The conversation then shifted.

“ — still has man parts.”

It seemed to Ms. Capasso that they were talking about her genitalia.

On the recording, the health care workers express a variety of opinions about transgender identity more generally. “Not that it’s not right, but — ” one person can be heard saying. “I don’t get any of it,” another says.

And in the middle of the conversation, one person suggests updating Ms. Capasso’s medical file. “Yeah, it needs to say ‘male,’” the person says.

Ms. Capasso said it appeared that hospital staff had in fact changed her electronic medical records, all while she was unconscious.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/nyregion/transgender-patient-records-during-cancer-surgery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.508.LmoG.ZKU_j3WH4zPy&smid=url-share