NEW YORK – The Miami doctor who was recorded fighting with an Uber driver in a Brickell street came out of hiding Wednesday morning to break her silence in an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America."
Dr. Anjali Ramkissoon's appearance on the morning talk show was the first time she spoke about the drunken encounter since it went viral last week.
"I had a bad night," she told George Stephanopoulos during the live, sit-down interview. "I made a huge mistake, the biggest mistake of my life, and that person is not me."
Ramkissoon called the day leading up to the altercation one of the worst days of her life. Hours earlier, her father had been hospitalized. She said that just minutes before the recording began, she and her boyfriend of two years had broken up. While she had driven her car that night, she had decided after a few drinks to leave her car and catch an Uber.
"There’s absolutely no excuse for my actions," she said. "I am ashamed. I'm so sorry. I've hurt so many people with this."
Witnesses said Ramkissoon began fighting with the driver when he would not take her home. He had been in the area to pick up another customer when she demanded he drive her.
"I was caught at my lowest moment," she said. "Nothing like this has ever happened. It was completely out of character."
Ramkissoon said that she has apologized to the driver and is grateful that he did not press charges. She said she paid for the damages to his car minutes after the fight.
"I did it and I'm ashamed of what I did, and this would never happen again," she said. "In the moment, I was just so angry. I wasn't really thinking. If I could take it back, I would."
The neurology resident has been placed on administrative leave from her job at Jackson Memorial Hospital. She hopes that taking responsibility for her actions could help her keep her job.
Ramkissoon said that since the video leaked, she and her family have been targeted. People have shown up at her parents' home and have sent her messages online telling her to kill herself.
"Use my story as a message, as a lesson, to be careful what you do in public, because the things that we do can be taped, and we can suffer severe ramifications," she said.