A pediatric anesthesiologist with Denver Health Medical Center has been barred from seeing patients and providing anesthesia services after posting racially insensitive Facebook comments about first lady Michelle Obama. In addition, it appears as though she will lose her teaching position at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

In response to a recent Facebook post praising Ms. Obama as "eloquent," Michelle Herren, MD, published an unflattering image of Ms. Obama, accompanied by comments referring to the first lady as "monkey face" and mocking her Harvard education. The post quickly caught the ears of Dr. Herren's employer when Facebook user JoAnn Nieto was "shocked" to see the comments appear in her daily feed and made Denver Health aware of the post. Backlash built as local and national media picked up the story.

Early Thursday, Denver Health acknowledged the situation and issued the following statement on its Facebook page early Thursday: "Denver Health is deeply disappointed by the remarks posted on social media by Dr. Michelle Herren against the First Lady of the United States. We are offended by the comments made by this individual, who was acting independently in her private capacity. Her views are contrary to the mission and values of Denver Health, and to our staff and patients.

"Denver Health proudly serves people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and social backgrounds — and our staff and patient population truly reflect our diverse community and nation," the post continued. "We are reaching out to all of our patients, employees and physicians to reinforce our culture, mission and beliefs that all individuals regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation are deserving of dignity and respect."

Soon after, however, Denver Health issued another statement suggesting that Dr. Herren would no longer be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services. Denver Health also removed references to Dr. Herren from its website.

Dr. Herren's faculty appointment as assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine is also in jeopardy. The School of Medicine issued a statement from Dean John J. Reilly Jr., MD, who said he had communicated directly with Dr. Herren regarding her Facebook post and reminded her "about her responsibilities as a faculty member to conduct herself with civility."

Dr. Reilly also said the school had begun the process of terminating Dr. Herren's faculty appointment. "She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care missions of the School of Medicine," he said.

A request for comment from Denver Health went unreturned as of press time. Efforts to reach Dr. Herren were unsuccessful.

Bill Donahue