Posted on 07/13/2004 4:41:41 PM PDT by mdittmar
A man who told his doctors that he drinks more than a six-pack of beer per day is now fighting to get his driver's license back because the physicians apparently reported him to the state.
Keith Emerich, 44, said Tuesday that he disclosed his drinking habit in February to doctors who were treating him at a hospital for an irregular heartbeat.
"I told them it was over a six-pack a day. It wasn't good for me I'm not going to lie," Emerich said in a telephone interview from his home in Lebanon, about 30 miles east of Harrisburg.
Emerich received a notice from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in April that his license was being revoked effective May 6 for medical reasons related to substance abuse. He has petitioned a judge to restore the license, and a hearing has been set for July 29.
A state law dating to the 1960s requires doctors to report any physical or mental impairments that could compromise a patient's ability to drive safely, PennDOT spokeswoman Joan Nissley said. Nissley said she could not discuss the details of Emerich's case because of confidentiality requirements that also protect the doctor from being identified.
The law requires revocation of the license until the driver can prove he is competent to drive.
Emerich said his heart problem has prompted him to limit his beer drinking to weekends. Aside from a drunken-driving conviction when he was 21, Emerich, a pressman at a printshop who lives alone, said he has a clean driving record and does not drink and drive.
"What I do in the privacy of my own home is none of PennDOT's business," he said.
Asked if he considered his client to be alcoholic, Horace Ehrgood, Emerich's attorney, said: "It depends on what your definition is."
"He's been able to go to work, and he's got a heck of a nice work record. He's been able to function in all other avenues of life," the lawyer said.
Pennsylvania's transportation agency receives about 40,000 medical reports and revokes 5,000 to 6,000 licenses a year but does not keep any statistics on its reasons for doing so, Nissley said. She also said she did not know how many revocations get appealed.
Pennsylvania is one of six states that require doctors to report motorists with medical conditions that could affect their driving, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The other states are California, Delaware, Oregon, Nevada, and New Jersey.
All other states and the District of Columbia allow physicians to submit reports on a voluntary basis.
Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based watchdog group, said cases like Emerich's highlight a tension between medical privacy and public safety.
"Certainly, cases like this could lead individuals to refrain from giving their doctors adequate information to treat them," Givens said.
I once worked with a middle-aged guy who confided that he drank a quart of rum per day. He died relatively young, but I never saw him impaired.
Bingo.
THAT is what I call legitimate grounds for a LAWSUIT!
The doctors need to have their certificates revoked
Are you kidding?
P.S.,bet my mom could'a out drank your mom,she doesn't remember the drinking years,or her 5 kids,$hit happens.
She drank 16 oz of beer a day?!
There's nothing wrong with that.
Hada, I'm in North Texas, and I think my DOCTOR has that many beers a day! I know my lawyer does.
The man has a clean driving record. Sounds like you want him punished for being a sinful drinker,not an incompetent driver.
Years ago, an employee of mine got 2 DUI's and they took her license. She used a bicycle to get to work, but was drinking one night and got arrested for drunk driving on her bicycle. :)
How did you prove you were you were competent to drive?
The only way a case of beer could impair my driving was if you stacked up the cans up on the windshield in front of me.
Good lord...absolutely NO ONE is going to tell their doctors a thing from now on.
A six pack per day? I know a guy who can drink a whole case in an evening
>> I for one am VERY GLAD this guy is off the roads.
He'll be the last one it happens to. Nobody in their right mind will tell their Docs anything from now on in PA.
One? All day just one?
Sure Mr. Law-dog. Hop right there in the passenger seat, and let's take a spin around I-285.
Or, how about you hop on the back of my 250, and let's take a spin around the powerline.
If Mr. law-dog begs to be let out or off before I'm finished displaying my driving compentency, does that make me "competent to drive"? How about a 25 year safe driving record?
No, it's all about money.
Have we met?;)
You must have a very short list of acquantainces. I can only think of three people I know who are total abstainers from alcohol.
My bet is she was sucking on 16 oz'ers all day.
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