A Florida teen appears to have been inspired by the comedy from the 90s, “Doogie Howser, M.D.” The problem with 18-year-old Matthew Scheidt is that he was not only inspired to act like a doctor on television, he did it in real life.
Scheidt used a clerical error that provided him with a medical badge to his advantage and decided to pretend to be a doctor’s assistant at Osceola Regional Medical Center in Florida.
On Tuesday, opening statements started in Scheidt’s trial. He is facing four counts of practicing medicine without a license and two counts of impersonating a physician’s assistant, stemming from the days he spent playing doctor in a real hospital with real patients.
At the time of his offense, back in August 2011, Scheidt was 17 years old.
Scheidt is reported to have confessed to giving a drug overdose patient CPR saying,
“I felt so uncomfortable even doing that. And, you know, the only reason why I did do it was because there was nobody else in there. And I’m not going to let her die.”
When Scheidt first went to get his badge as an office clerk, he was mistakenly given the wrong paperwork. Speaking to investigators, Scheidt said,
“Their error was putting me in apparently as a physician assistant into their computer. Let’s even say that I said I was a physician assistant. Let’s even say that I was. Are you that stupid that you are just going to put me in the system as that, without any credentials or any paperwork or nothing?”
According to prosecutors, the teenager allegedly used the badge to conduct routine tasks that a doctor’s assistant would perform in a hospital emergency room.By the time Scheidt was discovered, he had allegedly been working in the emergency room for weeks.
Scheidt reportedly admitted what he did saying,
“I messed up. I should have addressed the issue when it was given to me. I just didn’t want any questions asked, like I just wanted to learn as much as I possibly could.”
The teenager has entered a plea of not guilty and is seeking a means of getting his confession thrown out.
While out on bail, Scheidt was arrested for impersonating a police officer.
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