In the wake of the Larry Nassar case, which saw the official doctor for the US gymnastics team get
convicted for up to 175 years in prison for sexual abuse, one would hope that close attention is being paid to everybody working in the medical field.
However, despite stringent regulations and security efforts, sometimes individuals
do manage to act inappropriately or fraudulently under the guise of being a
medical professional - and it's actually more common that most of us would imagine.
Most recently, a plumber named Anton Yarin posed as a doctor in a Russian hospital, and managed to get away with seeing several patients - including one underage girl who had gynecological complaints - before it transpired that he was a fake.
Yarin, who is 31 years old and married with one child, reportedly came to the Pervouralsk City Hospital claiming that he had applied for a plumbing job. Then, once he was inside, he changed into a doctor's uniform and assumed the role of a medical professional at the facility.
Before long, he had made himself known to other members of staff as a surgeon, a gynaecologist, and a medic within the Accident and Emergency department.
When authorities questioned other staff members on why they did not recognize Yarin as an obvious fraud, they claimed that he had appeared confident, and therefore they had no reason to doubt his apparent qualifications.
Nikolay Shaydurov, the head doctor at the hospital, said that the man was previously a patient in one of the wards there - which explains why he was able to comfortably blend in there.
"He knows the hospital well and knows the names of many of our doctors," Shaydurov explained. "He was very confident. We believed he was a new doctor."
During the "several days" that Yarin was acting as a medical professional, nobody complained about his conduct. And, though no details about the "treatments" he provided have been revealed, it is known that he interacted with a young girl who had gone to the gynaecology department.
What is most worrying about this case, however, is that it is not the first time that something like this has happened.
Two years ago, an 18-year-old from Florida conned an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars after claiming to be a qualified doctor. The teenager, Malachi Love-Robinson, made home visits to an 86-year-old woman in order to treat her severe stomach pain.
He was arrested after an undercover officer posed as a patient at his practice.
However, Love-Robinson later claimed that he had never professed to be a medical professional, and claimed that he was
legally a doctor because he had a PhD - but he never divulged which field it was in or where he had got it.
"There are many types of degrees out there that hold the title of doctor - whether they are physicists or engineers. Just because someone has the title of doctor in front of their name does not necessarily imply 'MD'," he said.
Yarin, on the other hand, has been confirmed as not having any relevant qualifications.
So far, the Russian fraud has not yet been detained, though he is known to law enforcement as he has one previous conviction for theft.
