Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, came to a bizarre end in Bakersfield, California when she tried to break into the home of her “on-again, off-again” boyfriend by climbing down his chimney. She was found three days later by the housekeeper stuck in the chimney.
Kotarac first tried to enter the home with a shovel and the former boyfriend fled out a backdoor to avoid a confrontation. She was found about two feet above the interior fireplace opening.
There is no criminal or civil liability for the volitional act by Kotarac.
Emergency personnel had to break down the chimney to gain access to Kotarac.
Source: NPR
Isn’t it fascinating that whenever I do a speaking engagement or radio interview on the topic of “America’s Dumbest Doctors,” folks seem genuinely surprised at the sheer volume of idiocy that goes on. How they can be shocked is beyond me, considering 50 MDs each week are found embarrassingly guilty of one mindless act or another. And those who don’t manage to kill themselves do a terrific job of killing patients.
When a surgeon is found to be using amputated feet as crab bait; When another in the midst of a divorce accidentally blows up an entire New York building (with him in it); When a lab coat lunatic in Hawaii inserts a screwdriver into his patient’s neck; When a medically degreed character in New Jersey steals a cadaver’s hand in order to seduce a topless dancer; When a doc in Florida conspires with his brothers to chop off his finger for an insurance settlement; indeed, when another walks onto a military base and shoots 44 people – well, I just have to wonder if society might not be deliberately whistling past the clinical graveyard. Pretend it isn’t happening. Maybe it’ll go away. For Godsakes, they’r supposed to be . . . uh, what’s the word . . . SMART.
I recall early in my research years ago, when I wondered – briefly – whether there would even be enough material for a full-length assessment of Doctor Screw-ups. I needn’t have worried. With 11,000 over the last decade & 2,500 just last year, with 30-40 nurses per week sending me emails with their own versions of, “My Lord, wait till you hear this one!” – well, suffice it to say there is more material than an author could ever use.
The fact is, no profession in society generates more outright bizarre behavior than physicians. Far took much of it is deadly. But that heaven an awful lot of it is downright hilarious.
And – as so many hundreds of others – Doctor Kotarac becomes a perfect next candidate for our next Darwin Award, on the Medical Maniacs website.
So I suppose the Insurance Company (they own America and stand for Corporate Greed ad the Creed) will probably sue the Estate of the deceased be indemnified……
No matter what her co-workers says about her, my wife had to fire her as a doctor to her ex-husband about 13 years ago. She was a bad doctor then.
Darwin Award nominee for 2010.
I was a firefighter for a number of years & one of the more memorable events was a doctor that had a nice fire on Christmas Eve then cleaned out the ashed into a plastic garbage bag which he set out on his beautiful cedar deck. The family was awakened about 2 hours later because the entire exterior (also cedar) was on fire.
Who puts hot ashes into a plastic bag? Who puts that bag on a wooden deck? Sheesh!
Well … now we know she’s not Santa Claus …
@Patric: There is smart, and then there is wise, and one does not necessarily imply the other.
Yet another act where I’d really like to see the decision tree that led to the conclusion “This is a really good idea.”
If it were Christmastime, I’d say the decision tree was a Christmas tree, but I can’t imagine what kind of tree could be in your house in August that would prompt ANYBODY to make a similar decision regarding your chimney.
The doctor’s action certainly put a damper on that relationship.
Shire Nomad -
You are soooo-oooooo right. I stand corrected.
One of my favorite courtroom quotes is from a defense attorney in Ohio a few years ago. He was trying to rehabilitate the off-the-chart stupid testimony of his doctor-client, who had said with a straight face that someone else had murdered his wife. “They got into the house; killed my wife; carried her to the basement; used a jackhammer to chop open the floor; buried Noreen; filled in the hole; poured fresh concrete; then put a new carpet and pool table right over her grave.”
His attorney said in summation: “Just because you have a high IQ doesn’t mean you have common sense.”
May the lady doc rest in peace. I do suspect she was a tortured soul, and there is nothing funny about that at all.
PatricParamedic writes:
Citation needed. We live in a world with politicians, pundits, and the pious!
Gingerbaker -
Check out the book, “America’s Dumbest Doctors.”
The whole book is my citation. And thanks for the comments.
@ pardon me?
I bet her life flue before her eyes in her last moments.
Ah Bakersfield, my hometown. Few cities produce more batshit insane news stories per capita.