An anesthesiologist arrives at a hospital, sees the patient he’s about to put under, and announces: “I’m so tired, I can’t even see straight.” Sounds like a joke, right?

Wrong. That admission of incompetence, or words to that effect, is what anesthesiologist Jeffrey Wong actually told a patient at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, according to state Department of Health (DOH) documents in a disciplinary case announced this past week. Did we mention that Wong wheeled into the hospital room on a bike?

The other surprise: Wong kept his job for two years after the incident.

Nor was that the only neon-red flag that Wong presented before he was finally canned last March. In July 2008, Wong—who had been practicing at the hospital for five years—again proclaimed his extreme fatigue. “I was up all night on call,” he told a woman about to have a C-section, according to the DOH documents. “I hope I can do anesthesia safely.”

Around the same time, he brought a fish tank into a sterile hospital room, exposing the area to bacteria.

Indeed, his behavior throughout his tenure, as described in the documents, was erratic. He biked through hospital hallways, distracted staff during surgeries (to which he arrived late) with humming and “other annoying sounds,” spread rumors, and left oxygen tubes running following surgery so often that hospital staff came to believe “it was a game” to Wong, DOH wrote.

Hospital spokesperson Linda Brown could not immediately explain why Wong kept practicing as long as he did. She said she would look into the matter.

DOH started investigating Wong after a staffer complained last spring. On Dec. 30, the agency filed a preliminary statement accusing the physician of unprofessional conduct and negligence. Final action has not yet been taken.