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.
Are these people aware what the RDA of beer for medieval monks or 17th century schoolboys was?
n 1871, a year after it opened, the beer allowance for residents in the London Metropolitan and City Police Orphanage was discontinued on the grounds that several orphans were total abstainers. This controversial decision was reversed in 1880.
Well, actually I wasn't addressing the merits of his case. I was commenting on the pettifoggery (in just my opinion)of the language.
The dude may well BE an alcoholic, but if HE doesn't admit it it doesn't help anyone or change anything. What the lawyer said is actually quite true in recovery terms. There's no objective standard (that ( know of) for alcoholism. That's why it's a very dangerous diagnosis -- because it can be used to "get" people.
Note to self: Do not talk to strangers.
Ha! I knew a guy who got a drunk driving ticket while on horseback!
Huh? Why did you get your license pulled? I've got deaf friends and they've never had problems getting licenses.
I ask, what's my blood pressure. Let me see my EKG.
Thank you very much.
And I don't use those grocery store discount cards and pay cash for by groceries.
I've been doing this for thirty years.
A six-pack is on the excessive side, but you'd never be anywhere close to drunk unless you squeezed them into a short evening. For a doctor to do this without warning to a patient is nearly beyond belief.
Was he riding on a paved road? Was the horse swerving? Enquiring minds want to know...:-)
Uh oh.......I guess we need to fudge on interviews. How did DOT get this info?
Irony ping.
Did they report him for his heart condition, or his drinking habits?
Now if it's the heart condition - that's one thing.
If he's being reported because he MAY drink six beers in the future, and drive....well then, they better report everyone in the State. Who is to know what people MAY do in the future, despite their admitted patterns of the past.
According to who? In what period of time? What body weight? Before or after eating a meal? I would admit drinking a keg a day is a little EXTREME but 6 beers?
And beer for my horses..."
LOL.
He claims his horse knew the way home from the Dew Drop Inn and he was only along for the ride. Unfortunately for him and Nellie, on a paved road.
LOL. Drunkards triangulation - "I drink less than him, but he drinks more than me!"
It's the irregular heatbeat he was hospitalized for that is the problem. Details aren't given, but I suspect it results in blackouts, or near unconsciousness. Alcohol use just aggravates the condition.
LOL...Love that song.
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