But a few points I’d like to make:
Contrary to him being a member of the Kennedy family, there is no evidence to support he was drunk or high on drugs (I don’t think the nurses involved in the incident even claimed this) nor was he acting irrationally or recklessly except for wanting to take his newborn son for a walk.
Hospital maternity wards are hard to get into, and for good reason. When my niece and her husband had their babies, no one could get into the ward unless they were on the list of people pre-authorized by the parents. I not only had to show ID, I had to leave my driver’s license with the front desk, wear an ID badge and be buzzed into the unit by a nurse or met at the door by one of the parents.
There was no indication that the baby was in harm’s way by being taken for a walk by his father or against the mother’s wishes, even outside for a brief time. There is no indication that the baby had any medical condition that would prevent such a thing – this was not a NICU BTW. And it’s been unusually warm here in the NE, it’s not like it was raining, snowing or that the temps were frigid.
Contrary to wild and unfounded speculations of spousal abuse, his wife, the baby’s mother was not objecting and there was, while not an attending, a physician present.
Sometimes nurses and other hospital staff can act like total a$$wipes and suffer from the delusion that their position gives them the right to interpret the “rules” as they see fit without any application of common sense.
Just a few examples that I’ve experienced of the stupid actions of hospital staff (and I have more):
My dad was in and out of the hospital many times between ’93 and ’97. During one hospitalization, the doctor saw him the night before his discharge, verbally told him he could go home the next morning and noted it his chart (which I read) but failed to sign just one of the several required discharge forms. I got to the hospital at 9:00AM to pick up my dad who was dressed and ready to go but the duty nurse said the doctor needed to discharge him and she couldn’t allow us to leave. We waited and waited and patiently waited. Noon came and went and my dad, being a diabetic, needed to eat but no lunch was brought for him, because he had been “discharged” although they did bring him his insulin. I asked the floor nurse if a lunch could be brought for him and in a snit and a huff she told me I could just go to the cafeteria to buy him something if I really wanted otherwise she “might” be able to find him a sandwich later but she was just too busy at the time.
The doctor had been called several times but was unavailable to personally come and sign the one piece of paper he missed signing but gave a verbal OK to let me take my dad home but that wasn’t good enough. By 4:00 PM we were still waiting and my dad had had enough and started walking out. The nurse screamed at us that we were not allowed to leave, “You’re committing a crime if you take him home.” My dad said “Yea, and you and who’s army going to stop me?” The nurse then said, “Then you have to sign a form saying you are leaving against medical advice.” I calmly and politely told the nurse that his discharged was noted in his chart and he was not leaving against medical advice and she then told me that I wasn’t “supposed” to be reading his chart and that I wasn’t “qualified” to read it assuming that I could even read. At this point, we just left. She threatened to call the police and I said, “Go ahead, I dare you”. If she had tried to physically stop us from leaving, laid a hand on either me or my dad, at that point I might have very well cold cocked her. We got a phone call from the doctor and the hospital administrator apologizing after I filed a written complaint about our treatment.
When my niece and her husband were having their first baby, they asked if I wanted to be in the delivery room. I wasn’t able to have any children and I was very honored. But after many hours of labor, she wasn’t progressing, the baby was coming down the birth canal face first and the fetal heart monitor showed signs of distress so the OBY was called and it was decided that an emergency C-Section was necessary.
My niece was very upset and even more upset when after bringing her husband scrubs and a mask and instructions to scrub up, was told by the nurse that I couldn’t come with them. She said it was against the “rules” to have anyone but the father in the OR. When the doc came to talk to my niece before being wheeled into the OR, he looked at me and asked why I didn’t have my scrubs on too and we told him what the nurse told us. He rolled his eyes and said “that’s ridiculous, it’s not against any rules I know of, we do this all the time and I’ll take care of this.” When the nurse came back to the room, she literally and quite angrily threw a pair of scubs at me and told “Well the doctor overruled me so you need to just hurry on up.” The doc and OBY OR nurses on the other hand were great BTW. The doc told me the dad’s job was to keep mom calm and my job was to keep dad calm and to man the camera and take lots of pictures of the baby after she was delivered. After the doc, nurses and mom and dad, I was the very next person to hold my great niece and have a very nice picture of me in scrubs holding her along with a picture of me and my great niece and the doc.
On one hand, he (Kennedy) should have asked to talk with a supervisor first and not have forced the issue and IMO gotten into a physical confrontation and he may have been acting like a jerk. But on the other, other hand, I don’t like it when statists: governmental or otherwise act like a child or a parent, family member, belongs to them and their institution and that the rights of the family and that of the individual and plain common sense are lesser than their sometimes arbitrary, open to interpretation and legally unenforceable “rules”.
In my opinion based on what I’ve read so far, he committed no crime by wanting to take his child with him for a walk. He might have been breaking the “rules” but it wasn’t criminal or negligent or dangerous but yet he was being treated as if it was. I can understand how something like this can escalate out of control and unless other facts rather than pure conjecture and speculation are presented, I, despite his family name, tend to side with him.
Sometimes nurses and other hospital staff can act like total a$$wipes and suffer from the delusion that their position gives them the right to interpret the “rules” as they see fit without any application of common sense.
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It happens sometime. The proper response is, “Please call the nursing supervisor.” Simply walking out and then kicking the nurse is not a rational.
while not an attending, a physician present.
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If you are an MD, then you should know the following:
** He may not have been a physician.
** He may not have been known at all to the nursing staff in the maternity unit.
** Even if he was an attending physician and known by the staff, he has absolutely no authority in the maternity unit.
Again:
If there had been a misunderstand about permission to leave the unit, Kennedy merely needed to say, “Please call your nursing supervisor.” Another rational and legal approach would have been to call the public relations department of the hospital.
But...If he had done this, he likely would not have had **immediate** gratification of his needs.
Also....Unless it would be an emergency delivery of some kind, parents are well informed of the visiting and discharge policies of the maternity unit. If they don't agree to this there are other options for mothers with uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries.
By the way, the name “Kennedy” is not uncommon. I wouldn't know Douglas Kennedy if he dropped dead at my feet. Why are we assuming that these nurses knew who he was and why should it matter that he is from a notorious family?
Honestly, nurses have enough to do medically and surgically with their patients without thinking about every legal aspect of whether or not a baby can leave the hospital without his mother, or judge each case individually. They can't possibly know every aspect of their patient’s lives (posing fraudulently as a member of the family, custody issues, pending divorces, spousal abuse, etc.). That is why hospitals have these very sensible safety protocols for nurses to follow.
Sensible and emotionally mature people understand these issues and don't hassle the nurses about trivialities such as taking a baby for a stroll outside.
As trivial as this little walk outside was it could have managed successfully with a polite, “May I speak to the nursing supervisor”, or “May I have the number of the public relations department.”
Kicking a nurse in the pelvis while carrying a newborn? Unbelievable! This is not rational behavior. For what? A walk outside?