Posted on 01/16/2008 8:02:21 AM PST by jdm
NEW YORK -- A construction worker has filed a lawsuit claiming that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the forehead by a falling wooden beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination.
Brian Persaud, 38, said in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was "assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned."
His lawyer, Gerrard M. Marrone, said Tuesday that his client was injured while working at a construction site in midtown Manhattan on May 20, 2003, and at the hospital later he got eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow.
Then, Marrone said, emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that." He said Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and performed the rectal exam.
Persaud woke up handcuffed to a bed and with an oxygen tube down his throat, the lawyer said, and spent three days in a detention center.
Marrone said he and Persaud later learned the rectal exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage because of the accident.
A request by the hospital to dismiss Persaud's lawsuit was denied by Justice Alice Schlesinger, who ordered a trial to start March 31.
Hospital spokesman Bryan Dotson said, "While it would be inappropriate for us to comment on specifics of the case, we believe it is completely without merit and intend to contest it vigorously."
Marrone said his client "went through hell."
"He has a right to refuse a medical procedure," Marrone said. "The guy was assaulted and arrested for needing stitches."
The lawyer said his unmarried client, who lives in Brooklyn, has not been able to hold a job since the incident.
"He's just not the same psychologically," Marrone said. "He felt like they were trying to rape him."
Persaud's lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified damages.
A judge dismissed a misdemeanor assault charge against him.
What a pain in the a$$.
LOL
Idiot and a wimp.
He must have been real pretty!
Was he a union democrat?
They might have been checking for brain damage.
Thanks, but just an x-ray today would be fine...
They were checking for his head.
Did Dr. Ben Dover come out of retirement?
This moron is looking for money and surprise surprise he found a lawyer to help him....
ACLU is definitely going to get in on this one ~ on the side of the attendants.
With Hillarycare, all taxpayers will feel this guys pain
Actually, all jokes aside - the man has a RIGHT to REFUSE medical attention, and they have NO right to tie him down, inject him or do other things to him without his permission.
If the bump on the head made him unconscious that’s a bit different story - and if there isn’t a family member to give permission, then they docs have to do what they have to do to save a life.
Doesn’t sound to me as if the guy needed anyone to save him though.
Under Hillarycare, all rectal exams will be free, and everyone will expect one.
Could such an incident convert a guy to gay?
I hope the DR took his ring off first. If not, be glad the Dr never won a superbowl.
I bet this guy is billed for the shot that put him out so that they could perform the procedure that he didn't want.
I'm confused. How in the world would a rectal exam determine if there was spinal damage? Is there a doctor in the house?
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