Doogie Howser Imposter - A 17-year-old boy lived out his twisted fantasy of pretending to be a doctor at a West Palm Beach hospital for about a month before he was caught last week Tuesday.
According to a West Palm Beach police report, a patient notified staff at the St. Mary's Medical Center that a teenager dressed as a doctor was in the hospital. Hospital surveillance footage shows that the teenager, who was dressed in a white coat that had St. Mary's anesthesiology logo on it, simply walking around the halls of the medical center. He had reportedly been visiting the hospital for up to a month.
Hospital staff told the police that the teenager was present in an examination room while an OB/GYN doctor performed an exam on a patient.
Dr Kent Robinson, who was in the exam room with his patient along with the Doogie Howser imposter, told the police that the teenager, who identified himself as Dr. Robinson, had asked to intern under him. He said the relative young appearance of the fake doctor struck him. Dr. Kent's suspicions were once again heightened after he spoke to the teenager on the phone and noted certain irregularities in his credentials as well as the boy's choice of words. But before Dr. Kent would have the chance to act on his hunches, the teenager was apprehended.
Reports indicate that when he was apprehended, the teenager attempted to defend his actions by saying that he has been practicing as a doctor for a long time. Police recovered a white medical coat from his car. The boy's mother told the cops that he is suffering from an undisclosed illness and has not been taking his meds.
Meanwhile, the management of the St. Mary's Medical Center decided not to press charges against the teenager because he reportedly did not come into contact with any patient. "The individual never had contact with any hospital patient and did not gain access to any patient care areas of the hospital at any time," the hospital's statement said.
Many reports have connected the teenager with Neil Patrick Harris' character Doogie Howser in a 90s comedy TV series by the same name. But it seems unlikely that the 17-year-old boy had been born when Doogie Howser was aired on ABC.
