Posted on 08/25/2010 11:04:36 AM PDT by Domandred
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (CN) - A man who was hurt in a car crash but was misidentified as a cancer patient claims security guards at Prince George's Hospital beat him up when he tried to leave the hospital to avoid chest surgery he didn't need - "to have a potentially cancerous mass removed from his chest." He adds that one guard repeatedly called him "bitch" as he roughed him up.
Joseph Wheeler says a June 23 car accident put him in the hospital, which is owned by Dimensions Health Corporation. When he woke up hungry on June 24 and asked a nurse for food, she told him he couldn't eat because he was scheduled for surgery, Wheeler claims in Prince George's County Court.
Wheeler says the nurse checked his identification bracelet and told him the surgery was "to have a potentially cancerous mass removed from his chest."
Wheeler says his ID bracelet "contained a name that was different from Mr. Wheeler's, appeared to be that of a woman, and had a birth date that was 13 years prior to his own."
The complaint continues: "Mr. Wheeler, still in serious pain from the car accident and subsequent treatment from injuries sustained, was starting to fear for his safety as the hospital had misidentified him and he was being prepped to go into a surgery that he knew nothing about.
"At this point, Mr. Wheeler's wife, Felicia Ann Wheeler, came into the room to see her husband. Mr. Wheeler immediately told Mrs. Wheeler about what was taking place. The Wheelers decided that it was in their best interest to leave Prince George's Hospital Center and seek medical care for Mr. Wheeler elsewhere."
Mrs. Wheeler confirmed with nurses outside her husband's room that he was scheduled for cancer surgery, and when she told the nurses that she and her husband were leaving, "an argument ensued."
According to the increasingly bizarre complaint, Mr. Wheeler, "hearing the argument, took out his I/V, got out of the hospital bed, put his clothes on, and started to walk out of the room. He was bleeding from the spot on his hand where that I/V had been connected.
"Mrs. Wheeler and the nurse met Mr. Wheeler at the door. The nurse told Mr. Wheeler that he was not allowed to leave. She put a bandage on Mr. Wheeler's hand to stop the bleeding from the I/V spot, and then yelled for security.
"Mr. Wheeler, now bandaged and clothed, began to walk toward the exit of the floor while his wife gathered the rest of his belongings. As he moved toward the exit, two large men in security uniforms moved quickly toward Mr. Wheeler."
These men, defendants William Reese and Donovan Scott, worked for the hospital and/or defendant Broadway Services, according to the complaint. The Wheelers say the two security guards were "immediately hostile."
"Defendant Scott harshly asked, 'Where do you think you're going?' Mr. Wheeler told both Reese and Scott that his business was finished at the hospital and that he was on his way out," the complaint states.
"In the moments immediately following this exchange, defendant Scott began to appear angry and upset with Mr. Wheeler. He began to use profanity directed at Mr. Wheeler about getting back to Wheeler's 'damn room.'
"At this point the two officers put on black padded gloves in front of Mr. Wheeler and defendant Scott started to hit his fist against his own hand and moved closer in proximity to Wheeler's face. Defendant Scott appeared angry and agitated."
Wheeler, "in fear for his safety," tried to reason with the guards.
"He told the officers that he had been in a serious car accident and suffered from multiple injuries to the torso and shoulders. Wheeler also told the officers that he was retired from the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office and that he knew that the security officers had no right or authority to detain him. Wheeler stated that he wanted to leave."
At that point, Wheeler says, Scott grabbed him and shoved him "hard from behind into the adjacent wall and metal railing," hurting his ribs.
The complaint continues: "Mr. Wheeler, in serious pain and feeling like he was going to black out, fell to floor. Defendant Scott stood over him and yelled, 'Get off the floor bitch! This game is over!'
"Defendant Scott continued, 'I don't care who you think you are, this is my camp, you listen to what I got to say!' The vocal officer then grabbed Mr. Wheeler and pulled him up off of the ground as Wheeler pleaded with the officer to stop hurting him.
"At this point the defendant Reese said to the vocal officer, 'Man, ease up on him. He might really be hurt.' Defendant Scott replied, 'Hell no, he don't come up in here and be telling us what the fuck to do!'"
As the two guards "escorted" him back to his room, "Scott accused Wheeler of attempting to push the second officer down a flight of stairs," and "continued to shout expletives at Wheeler," according to the complaint.
Wheeler says the men took him to the hospital security office, where an unidentified lieutenant questioned him.
"After Mr. Wheeler explained what had happened, the lieutenant looked at Wheeler's hospital-provided identification bracelet and acknowledged that Wheeler had been misidentified," Wheeler says.
But that was not the end of the conflict. Wheeler says the lieutenant became agitated when he would not return the incorrect bracelet, and ordered the security guards to stop him from leaving.
He says a plainclothes hospital employee, a woman he identifies as an "administrator ... intervened in the conversation" and after he explained the situation, said she would make sure he "would have his own private room and any type of drug he wanted, just to name the pain killer."
Wheeler says he and his wife chose to leave the hospital, but when he tried to leave with the incorrect ID bracelet, one of the security guards "charged Wheeler, again calling Wheeler 'bitch,' and shoved him against the wall."
"Mr. Wheeler spent the next three days at St. Mary's Hospital and was diagnosed with four broken ribs, a sprained shoulder, a ruptured spleen, and a concussion," he says.
The Wheelers seek $3.2 million in compensatory damages and $9.5 million in punitive damages for assault and battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.
They are represented by Bryan Dugan with Dugan, McKissick, Wood & Longmore of Lexington Park, Md.
When our daughter was young she spent a good deal or her life on roller blades playing street hockey with the neighborhood kids.
At the age of six we had to take her to a doctor for a bad ear infection. She had some small bruises on her shins from the hockey and while there the nurses spent the entire visit trying to get her to tell them my wife and I were beating her, especially me since I was a male.
She refused to tell them lies and said she plays hockey. One of the nurses threatened me and told me the bruises were documented and that she was going to keep an eye on me. I actually got mad and told her to "Kiss my a$$."
Never went back to that doctor.
In a better world, this is where the wife pulls out her carry pistol.
LOL!
I thought he was taken to Prince George's Hospital after the accident and chose to go to St. Mary's Hospital later.
Defendant Scott replied, ‘Hell no, he don’t come up in here and be telling us what the fuck to do!’”
____________________
That tells me all I need to know
Defendant Scott replied, ‘Hell no, he don’t come up in here and be telling us what the fuck to do!’”
_________________
TY for the ping. The sentence above tells me all I need to know. I hope Wheeler owns that hospital when all is said and done.
We had our basic training in that much earlier. When that same daughter was a baby she had hemangiomas on her arms that looked just like the bruises that would be caused by grabbing her by the arms as if to shake her. We had a letter from her dermatologist explaining what they were and giving the dermatologists phone number to be called at any time if there were questions. Mrs Mag and I each kept a copy of our "get out of jail free card" with us at all times.
A kind of humorous sequel to that story occurred when Mrs Mag and I were out shopping some years later. We saw a couple with a baby who had very similar hemangiomas to our daughters'. Once you get to know the difference between hemangiomas and bruises they are quite distinct, even if most ER personnel are never trained in them. They are very rarely life threatening. The guy saw me notice their daughter and I could see him stiffen up in preparation for the wave of hate he thought I was going to let loose on the "child abusers" so I said loud enough for him to hear "Look, hemagiomas!" They didn't look too prosperous but I could have hit the guy up for a $20.00 charactor loan on the spot.
We have health care press gangs? We have to go to our hospitals armed?
Thanks LucyT. Seems a tad overzealous on the part of the “security” staff.
Hell, Wheeler can sue them twice.
"Rule five: Operating on the wrong patient or doing the wrong side of the body makes for a very bad day...otherwise it's a res ipsa...short for res ipsa loquitur, or 'the thing which speaks for itself'. It means a malpractice case in which the error is so obvious that even a non-expert can see that a f*ckup has occurred. A patient falls off the OR table. You cut off the left leg when it's the right one that's gangrenous....A patient bursts into flames during defibrillation....Res ipsa is checkbook time. Just write in a string of zeroes."
Throw the hospital out of business.
And put the guards AND the admin into forced labor -- say in French Guyana.
NO cheers, unfortunately.
The victim told me that her husband had slapped her. I told her I would be filling out a restraining order. I asked her where he worked and I said that I would serve the restraining order and arrest him. She did NOT want me to arrest him at work. She was a professional in her job, as was her husband. I told her I would leave an arrest order for the following shift.
To this day I don't know if he was arrested, or even if the case ever went to court. I never got a subpoena.
And as for going to court on domestic violence cases, I never went to trial on a case of DV. I had testified in a preliminary hearing, and once I testified about a case I wrote and a man was sent to jail on a probation violation. But I think that my experiences are shared by a lot of officers, and that few officers ever actually testify in a trial of DV.
They blame a man. Probably a 'Teabagger.' ;-)
Cheers!
True story...I went to the ER around 10PM suffering from severe prolonged vomiting. I was put in a room at around 11:30 PM. No one checked on me, no one answered the call button, I was emptying my own emesis basin until I was so weak and dehydrated I could not get up to do it. I was vomiting everywhere, finally just yellow, green bile. The one time I tried to leave the room to seek help a passing nurse yelled “get back in there”. Finally at 6:30 AM a man who said he was a “doctor” came in to see me. While trying not to touch me he jabbed one finger at my upper abdomen and asked “did that hurt?”. Without waiting for a reply he left the room and I never saw him again. At 8:30 a nurse came in asked had if I had ever taken phenergan and was anyone with me to drive me home? I said yes, my s-i-l was in the waiting room and would drive me home. She said “good, take this, go straight home and don’t stop anywhere because you are going to sleep”. The nurse put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me out to the waiting room to tell my s-i-l to go get the car, then “helped” me into the car. I got home at 9:45 AM SAT. MORNING went straight to bed and woke up at 7:35 PM SUNDAY NIGHT. My daughter said she was scared and did not know what to do. She said she kept coming in to check on me and would touch my arm or chest to see if I was still breathing and that she spoke to me but all I did was moan. When I woke up I was literally green. My daughter was crying and almost hysterical. She had not known what to do.
I called the hospital but they seemed unconcerned about my complaint, they did bill my BC-BS though.
BTW I was the only patient in that ER, on a Sat night that should have told me something, huh? The “doctor” was not accompanied by a nurse when he came in the room to see me. My s-i-l was told only patients were allowed back in the exam rooms.
When telling this story locally I name the hospital and say I think they must have been filming a commercial gone bad for Holiday Inn Express.
Prince George's Hospital, soon to be known as Joseph Wheeler Medical Center owned by the Wheeler Family Health Corporation.
Funny how that escaped some people.
If you had read the story you would know his wife was with him.
My guess is that he didnt have a choice. If he was in a car accident the closest available EMT unit is going to respond; you dont get to pick where you want to go when youre picked up at an accident scene with severe trauma.
43 posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 2:32:32 PM by snowrip
Funny how that escaped some people.
77 posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:13:29 PM by raybbr
Not as funny as those that got the facts messed up. He was taken to Prince George's Hospital first and later went to St. Mary's of his choosing. You'd know that if you had read the article. From the article:
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (CN) - A man who was hurt in a car crash but was misidentified as a cancer patient claims security guards at Prince George's Hospital beat him up when he tried to leave the hospital to avoid chest surgery he didn't need - "to have a potentially cancerous mass removed from his chest." He adds that one guard repeatedly called him "bitch" as he roughed him up.Wheeler says he and his wife chose to leave the hospital, but when he tried to leave with the incorrect ID bracelet, one of the security guards "charged Wheeler, again calling Wheeler 'bitch,' and shoved him against the wall."
"Mr. Wheeler spent the next three days at St. Mary's Hospital and was diagnosed with four broken ribs, a sprained shoulder, a ruptured spleen, and a concussion," he says.
bump to read at work
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