Hospital gave sick doctor a special PC for his personal, erm, pleasure

A hospital IT support worker, identified as Mason, describes repeatedly removing malware from the computers of a prominent organ-transplant researcher. The doctor regularly accessed adult entertainment on work machines, violating hospital rules and exposing the lab to infections; Mason says some cleanup jobs came several times a week. Although he repeatedly warned his manager, the doctor’s standing protected him from consequences. A serious cyber-worm later caused widespread damage, and investigators traced its entry to the researcher’s PC while he was using it for personal browsing.

Rather than discipline the doctor, hospital leaders agreed that he could use a separate computer for that activity and reserve work machines for professional duties. Mason’s manager ordered him to retrieve a discarded PC, refurbish it, and deliver it, explaining that the CIO had demanded compliance on pain of losing his job. Mason objected that the arrangement was improper, risked legal exposure, and squandered IT resources, but he prepared the machine and eventually left. The designated computer still needed malware cleanup about once a year, when it became unusable. Years later, graduate students sued the doctor, and the computer reportedly helped show that hospital officials knew about his conduct and had enabled it rather than addressing it.