Hospital gave very sick doctor a special PC for his personal, erm, pleasure

Mason, a hospital employee responsible for tech support in research labs, shared his tale of a particularly challenging case with The Register's weekly column, On Call. The doctor in question was a leading organ transplant researcher who also indulged in adult entertainment on his personal computer. This habit frequently led to malware infections on the lab's equipment, requiring Mason to clean up the mess multiple times each week.

Despite the doctor's notorious behavior being widely known and violating multiple workplace policies, management never took any action against him.

When a major cyber-worm struck the hospital, Mason noticed that his colleague's logs pointed to the doctor's PC as the source of the infection. The malware was believed to have been introduced during Mason's last clean-up session, when the doctor was using his PC for personal matters. Mason assumed that this would be the moment the doctor would face disciplinary action, but instead, he reached an agreement with the IT department.

The doctor agreed to use only a designated computer for his personal activities and to use office computers for work purposes.

Mason's frustration led him to escalate his protests, arguing that the hospital's inaction was unprofessional, potentially exposing them to lawsuits, wasting IT resources, and condoning the doctor's behavior. Despite his objections, the CIO ordered Mason to give the doctor a new computer to use for his personal use. Mason complied, but left the hospital shortly after the doctor's designated PC was put into use.

Years later, the doctor's graduate students filed a lawsuit, using the separate computer as evidence that the hospital had known about his activities and not just ignored them.