Giving someone illegal drugs, watching them OD, then lying to the cops about why they're passed out is pretty bad. Agree that if you get caught doing that as a leader of a high-profile organization, you should get fired.<p>However, this article seems to be trying to whip up anger not just for that particular case of depraved negligence, but more broadly for the fact that Dr. Puliafito led a hard-partying secret double life.<p>The puritanical impulse to hold people to super-high standards of wholesome rectitude in their private lives seems silly to me, and I think it's ultimately to the detriment of large institutions, whether universities or government or big corporations or whatever else. I'd much rather work for a highly competent CEO who indulges a few vices in her private life than a soup sandwich straight arrow, so long as the party animal keeps things professional while at work.<p>[edited: previous draft erroneously said he gave his companion prescription opiates, not the case]
I honestly don't care what people do in their private lives, it sounds like he managed his life pretty successfully in spite of his heavy drug use. The fact that a physician let a young woman overdose in his company is pretty damn slimy though, and an indication that he might not have been doing as good a job keeping things under control as he thought.
This really doesn't seem like public interest reporting. It's well sourced and not outwardly judgmental, but the facts of the story are all in the headline: rich successful older man secretly does a lot of drugs and hangs around with younger women. If he was an actor this wouldn't be news.
Based on these reports, I suspect that Puliafito is a psychopath and is unfit to practice medicine. The refusal of USC authorities to recognize this and act appropriately is the real scandal.
Here's the Pasadena Police interviewing Dr. Carmen Puliafito:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRU0Ox1uT8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRU0Ox1uT8</a>
So the guy uses drugs? Who gives a shit as long as he wasn’t operating on patients under the influence.<p>But it’s fucked up if he didn’t try to help that woman to save himself or protect his reputation.
"Puliafito has no known criminal record, and public records show no blemishes on the medical licenses he holds in California and three other states. A review of court records in those states found no malpractice claims against him."<p>Wtf is wrong with the media that they can't let this person have a private life, warts and all. Sad.