Surgical Souvenir: Florida Surgeon Charged After Lying to Police and Palming a Slug Taken From a Suspect as a Souvenir

Dr. David J. Ciesla now know the perils of souvenir hunting in surgeries. The Florida surgeon and medical director of the trauma center at Tampa General Hospital is facing criminal charges after adding that he lied to police when he said that he could not retrieve two bullets from a suspect in a homicide case. He later admitted that he had removed one slug but decided to keep it as a cool souvenir.

Ciesla is now charged with providing false information to law enforcement during an investigation and obstructing or opposing an officer without violence.

What is most remarkable is that detectives were waiting outside the operating room for four hours to retrieve the slugs. Yet, Ciesla, 42, still felt that he could just lie and pocket the one slug that he was able to recover. Another doctor, Dr. Sergio Alvarez, eventually told the police about the swiped slug.

The suspect Thomas Ford McCoy Jr., 42, had been shot twice by a deputy U.S. marshal. He is suspected of killing a Coca-Cola employee who was stocking a vending machine in the Florida Panhandle. Ciesla removed one slug from the suspect’s liver and then palmed it by slipping it under his surgical glove.

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