Image by facebook

(Seattle) — A Seattle physician accused of sexting during surgeries and improperly accessing medical images for sexual gratification has been suspended from practice for disregarding patient safety and engaging in sexual misconduct, Washington state health officials said on Monday.

Arthur Zilberstein, an anesthesiologist and surgeon licensed in Washington state since 1995, “frequently exchanged personal and often sexually explicit text messages” while in surgery at a Seattle hospital last year from April to August, a state medical board said in legal documents.

On a typical day during that period, Zilberstein worked as an anesthesiologist for medical procedures like cesarean deliveries while sending as many as 45 sexually charged texts, investigators with the Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission, a branch of the state health department, said.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

He also obtained medical records containing images of a woman with whom he was conducting an affair under false pretenses, accessing the visual materials “not for medical purposes but in order to view images of the patient for his own sexual gratification,” the probe found.

Zilberstein could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours on Monday.

The commission accused Zilberstein of tarnishing the reputation of the medical profession by sending color “selfies” to the same woman in which he appeared in hospital scrubs, wearing his hospital identification and exposing his genitals.

Zilberstein met secretly with the woman in the doctor’s lounge at the hospital to arrange for sexual encounters during a period he represented himself as her treating physician and prescribed her medications, according to the commission.

Among other violations, Zilberstein “compromised patient safety due to his preoccupation with sexual matters”, Washington health officials said.

“He’s supposed to be focusing on the patient during surgery,” said Kelly Stowe, spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Health.

He has 20 days to respond to the charges and to request a hearing, Stowe said.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount