Eye exam included toe licking: lawsuit
SKOKIE | Aide allegedly called it 'sugar level' check
January 18, 2008
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter
spatterson@suntimes.com
Roman Tesfaye went to a Skokie clinic in July 2007 for the first eye exam of her life.
Instead, she claims, a doctor's assistant licked her toes as part of what he said was an effort to check her "sugar level."
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A woman filed suit against a Skokie eye doctor and the doctor's former assistant, Joseph Vernell, inset, alleging the assistant licked her toes during an eye-exam.
Now, the Uptown woman is suing Dr. Tamara Wyse, the Myers-Wyse Center for the Eye and Wyse's assistant, Joseph Vernell Jr., for the humiliation and anguish Tesfaye claims she endured.
Vernell, 39, was criminally charged and pleaded guilty after the incident, while Wyse said her office fired him and "strengthened our administrative controls to prevent a similar occurrence" after "the unfortunate event."
"We are very sorry for what happened to Ms. Tesfaye," she said.
Tesfaye, 36, couldn't be reached, and her attorney declined comment.
Tesfaye claims in the suit that when Vernell came into the exam room, he said he had to perform "a strip test" which involved him placing a strip in her eyes, after which she had to keep her eyes closed for five to seven minutes.
But she felt something touching her toes and opened her eyes to find Vernell stand up and pull his shirt down.
"Did you just lick my toes? You licked my toes," she recalls saying to him, according to her suit. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but I was checking your sugar level," he reportedly replied.
Vernell, of Forest Park, could not be reached. He is now on probation.
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