Doctor Calls Behavior ‘Playful Acts’ : Lawsuit: An anesthesiologist and nurse support Barry Tischler’s denial of sexual harassment in the operating room.

A prominent South Bay doctor, testifying this week in a landmark sexual harassment suit brought against him by a nurse, said that he occasionally injected levity and playfulness--but not harassment--into the operating room.

Barry Tischler, a staff obstetrician and gynecologist at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, said Tuesday that he and others in the operating room took their jobs seriously but used hugs or jokes before or after surgery to put their minds at ease.

“At appropriate times there were playful acts in the operating room. Not during procedures but at times when a procedure was not undertaken,” Tischler said in testimony before a Torrance Superior Court jury of eight women and four men.

In what is being termed California’s first “environmental” harassment suit, nurse Julie Fisher contends that from 1981 to 1986 Tischler sexually hugged and touched nurses and made crude comments about patients’ breasts while they were under anesthesia.

Although Fisher was not a direct target of the alleged abuse, she claims that witnessing it caused her emotional distress. She is also suing the hospital, charging that it failed to discipline Tischler adequately and condoned the doctor’s conduct by appointing him to its board of directors.

Because of the statute of limitations, Fisher is seeking damages only for incidents that occurred in 1985 and 1986. But Judge Mort Franciscus has allowed her to cite incidents before then to establish whether Tischler engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment.

Supporting Tischler’s case this week was Dr. Larry Ba, a staff anesthesiologist who often worked with Tischler.

Ba said that operating room staff sometimes gave each other hugs by way of greeting but that he never saw Tischler or anyone else engage in sexual hugging or misconduct.

Ba also said he never heard Tischler remark on the breast size of anesthetized patients.

Fisher had testified that Tischler made remarks such as “Look at those” and “You could tell those aren’t real.” She also testified that on at least one occasion she concurred with Tischler after he doubted that a patient’s breasts were naturally formed.

“I have never seen anyone more courteous,” Ba said of Tischler. “I never heard him say anything derogatory about a patient either under anesthesia or while they were awake.”

Marva Strayhorn, an operating room nurse, testified for Tischler, saying that whatever hugs occurred were meant to relieve stress, not cause it.

“It’s a tension reliever,” said Strayhorn, who later added that Tischler never hugged her. “You run out and hug someone instead of crying.”

Contradicting Fisher’s allegations, Strayhorn said she never knew Tischler to simulate sexual intercourse with nurses, grab their chests or remark on a patient’s breast size.

“Did you ever witness any conduct by Dr. Tischler that was offensive to you?” asked John Kelly, Tischler’s lawyer.

“No,” Strayhorn said.