Dog spray made me squeeze the nurse’s bottom, says doctor
‘I thought I was Superman’
A DOCTOR squeezed a nurse’s bottom because he suffered a ‘euphoric’ reaction to a pet-calming spray, a tribunal heard yesterday.
When the nurse told Dr Colin Gelder, 59, that only her husband was allowed to touch her there, he replied: ‘Well, he’s a very lucky man.’
Later on the same shift, the hospital consultant shocked a 60year-old female colleague who was giving him a ‘telling-off’ by saying: ‘You’re sexy when you are cross.’
The married father of two, who faces being struck off after 35 years in medicine, admits the incidents happened but blames fumes from a Pet Remedy plug diffuser which he claims mixed with his hayfever medication – making him ‘feel like Superman’.
The consultant respiratory physician told the hearing that he would have even groped a male nurse had he encountered one.
Such plug- ins spread small amounts of essential oils including valerian, calming cats and dogs during storms or fireworks. The incidents happened shortly after Gelder arrived at University Hospital in Coventry on September 1, 2017, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester heard.
Alan Taylor, lawyer for the General Medical Council, said the first woman, Nurse A, was doing her morning rounds and didn’t notice anyone else about. ‘As she was leaning over the trolley, she felt a hard squeeze to the left buttock and she turned around and saw Dr Gelder looking directly at her and smiling,’ he added.
Mr Taylor said the 55-year-old informed the ward manager, saying Gelder had ‘made her feel really dirty’ and ‘violated’. Nurse A said at the time: ‘It is not what you would expect from anyone, let alone a work colleague.’
When she again encountered Gelder a short time later, ‘she told him the only person allowed to do that to her was her husband and he replied: “Well, he’s a very lucky man”,’ Mr Taylor said.
The second incident occurred after another female colleague, Miss B, wanted to speak to Gelder about his failure to write up assessments in patients’ notes.
‘Dr Gelder responded, saying: “You’re sexy when you are cross”,’ Mr Taylor said. She felt ‘surprised and taken aback as he had not spoken to her in that way before,’ he said, adding that Gelder blamed his actions on ‘an immature intention to behave in a jokey way’.
He continued: ‘He thought it could possibly be a reaction to a substance called valerian, which can be found in Pet Remedy, and thought it could possibly be a reaction with the antihistamine he was taking. He says the Pet Remedy was being diffused at home and sprayed liberally with the means of calming his dogs during thunderstorms.’
Giving evidence, Gelder said he had been ‘experiencing feelings of euphoria’ that morning and ‘finding things irrationally funny’.
‘At the time I thought I could do anything and I thought I was Superman,’ he added.
Describing his comment to Miss B, he said: ‘She was going to give me a telling- off and I tried to deflect and attempted a joke.’
Denying his actions had been sexual, he added: ‘If it was a male nurse I even would have done the same to them but I don’t think I saw any men.’
Gelder, of Lutterworth, Leicestershire, denies sexually-motivated misconduct.
The hearing continues.