Medical school student says she 'missed' vein on patient after he laughed at her 'pronoun pin' — then 'he had to get stuck twice'

A student from Wake Forest School of Medicine on Tuesday tweeted that after a patient laughed at her "pronoun pin" in front of other medical staff, she "missed his vein" during a blood draw — and added that "he had to get stuck twice."

The student soon deleted her Twitter account, and the medical school said the student's tweet doesn't reflect its values and added that officials are "taking measures to address this with the student."

What are the details?

Libs of TikTok posted a screenshot of a Twitter reply from @kdel_2023, who is the medical school student in question:

"I had a patient I was doing a blood draw on see my pronoun pin and loudly laugh to the staff, 'She/Her? Well of course it is! What other pronouns even are there? It?'" the student wrote. "I missed his vein so he had to get stuck twice."

The student's tweet was a response to a tweet from @shirleneobuobi, who wrote that her ID badge "has had she/her pronouns for a year. I’m cis, & I wear it to help my patients & colleagues who fall under the trans umbrella feel a little more comfy. In the last few weeks, several cis patients have berated me for it."

What did Wake Forest have to say?

The medical school on Tuesday said the student's tweet doesn't reflect the school's values and that officials are "taking measures to address this with the student":

The student's Twitter account has been deleted.

Anything else?

Fox News said it reached out to the medical school student in question, noting that the Post Millennial identified her as fourth-year student Kychelle Del Rosario. Fox News said it's unclear if the student will face any disciplinary action or criminal charges.

The cable network said Del Rosario published a piece last March in opposition to the so-called bathroom bill in North Carolina requiring that people use public restrooms that correspond to their biological sex.

Fox News added that Del Rosario — an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship recipient — argued in a piece on the fellowship’s website that "policies like these have consequential impacts on the health of transgender people." She also said she was a leader in Safe Zone in Medicine, which she described as "an organization run by health care trainees whose goal is to educate health professionals about the needs and disparities in LGBTQ+ healthcare," the cable network added.

"This role prepares me to become a trustworthy doctor and advocate for the transgender community — a population which the medical field has harmed greatly in the past," she wrote in the piece titled "The Senate Must Protect Transgender Health," Fox News said. "It also allows me to train other health care professionals who aim to improve their practice to be more welcoming and gender-affirming."

In addition, the student in question retweeted a response to doctors who don't care about pronouns that said, "You better f***ing care."

How are folks reacting?

Twitter users who've caught wind of the controversy aren't happy:

• "This irresponsible, unethical, liability should be terminated immediately," one commenter tweeted to the medical school. "An individual's self beliefs should not translate into subpar medical treatment because the physician disagrees. Abhorrent."
• "As I type this, I have a nasty bruise from a botched blood draw. It was an honest mistake on the nurse's part, but it was nonetheless quite painful," another user said. "Doing something like this intentionally is downright cruel. This person be expelled from school and face criminal charges."
• "What else will she do to a patient who offends her?" another commenter wondered. "This is demonstration of her character. Confessing this without remorse on Twitter also shows that this person doesn’t deserve to be a physician."

Not everyone sees it that way, however:

• "Doctors miss veins all the time," one commenter said. "It's not malpractice to be human."
• "Is there any indication this was deliberate?" another user asked. "It's dumb/unethical to post about it, but seems like it could also just be an 'amusing coincidence.' I'm sure y'all know how much it sucks when people interpret ambiguous comments as proof of your malicious character. No smoking gun?"