Posted on 09/01/2017 7:34:22 AM PDT by BobNative
A nurse says she was assaulted and illegally arrested by a Salt Lake City police detective for following a hospital policy that does not allow blood draws from unconscious patients.
Footage from University Hospital and officer body cameras shows Detective Jeff Payne and nurse Alex Wubbels in a standoff over whether the policeman should be allowed to get a blood sample from a patient who had been injured in a July 26 collision in northern Utah that left another driver dead.
Wubbels says blood cannot be taken from an unconscious patient unless the patient is under arrest, unless there is a warrant allowing the draw or unless the patient consents. The detective acknowledges in the footage that none of those requirements is in place, but he insists that he has the authority to obtain the draw, according to the footage.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
re: “There’s absolutely no reason to draw blood from this person, no reason for him to be under arrest, and no reason for a warrant to be issued for a blood draw.”
The Police chase went very bad. The Cops were trying to get info to cover their asses!
Her supervisor was ON THE PHONE on speakerphone when the incident happened. He told the cops he was wrong, and he was making a mistake by threatening a nurse. Then the cop exploded.
You could say he was under stress - but that nurse worked in a burn unit - you think she not under stress all the time?
That guy is a dangerous guy. He has no business in that job.
It's the "Us against Them" mentality. It is what has caused many honest, law abiding, tax paying citizens to lose respect for the badge.
There is so much wrong in this story, the cop should be fired and the nurse win a settlement.
1. When you are a patient in the hospital, the hospital will follow the law. That means a warrant for a blood draw. Otherwise, there are severe HIPAA violations and the hospital will be sued and the nurse will lose her license.
2. If there was a probable cause to obtain the blood, it would be easy for them to call a judge and get the warrant. The fact that they did not means they did not have probable cause. I would think that if there is a law stating that truck drivers need their blood drawn, it most likely would be when they are on work time. For all you know, he may not have been on the work clock at the time of the accident.
3. Some of you criticized her for screaming. If you had your arm twisted to your back, that would hurt. They were rough with her .
4. By forcing an ICU nurse off the floor , they endangered other patients by short staffing the unit.
This cop needs to be fired.
At least the Cop didn’t scream... “stop resisting!”
“It takes a special kind of person to deal with the crap that they do and not want to take short-cuts and not to completely resent the people you are dealing with and trample their rights. It’s a very hard thing to do. I don’t think I could do it.”
One of my wife’s best friends married our town’s first chief of police. That was twenty years ago. He had a heart attack and had to retire. He just had his 80th birthday, and he still bears the “scars” of a life as a police officer. It has taken all of the past 20 years to get over the notion that “everyone is a potential lawbreaker,” and to try as best he can to absolve himself of some of the “extra legal” actions he took “on the job.” He’s even recently joined his wife’s church and got himself baptized. So you’re spot on with your comments.
So my opinion on this had changed somewhat based on two things.
First, the officer asserts that he was instructed by his superior officer to arrest the nurse if she interfered. So, he wasn’t simply doing this because he was mad, as the video made it seem, but because he was following his own orders.
Secondly, the officer was actually trained to draw blood himself, so presumably he wasn’t trying to force the nurse to draw blood, he was simply trying to go and do it himself.
I still think the situation could have been handled much better, but it seems closer to possible obstruction now.
“She did not refuse to “allow” the blood test, she refused to do the blood test”
No, she refused to allow it. The police officer is a trained phlebotomist.
As far as the claim that the police didn’t explain it well enough, the article says that the police called the hospital ahead of time and the hospital basically refused to accept what the police told them.
And there it is. Police closing ranks to protect one of their own. As verified by this quote:
"Payne — who says he wanted the blood sample to protect the patient, not punish him — said he was advised by Lt. James Tracy, the watch commander on duty that night, to arrest Wubbels for interfering with a police investigation if she refused to let him get the sample, according to his report."
There’s gotta be some reason to take the blood, and there has to be a protection of the unconscious blood giver. A judge has to approve it.
Yes, I am beginning to see that there is more to the story here than I thought.
It does not matter that he is a trained phlebotomist. He is not an employee of the hospital, therefore he has no rights to perform a medical procedure on a patient. A hospital is not going to allow any Tom, Dick and Harry to walk in off the street to administer a medical procedure on a patient. They may be able to draw blood at a police station for DUI, but not in a hospital.
In the 18 minute video after she is in the police car another officer is talking to her.. I thought she said they had drawn blood on the patient when he arrived.. also that they had already given him something to keep him comfortable (I am assuming pain meds)
“They????
It was ONE cop,one.”
Not true! The cop had his watch commander on the phone. And let’s not forget the University “door shakers” in uniform who stood idly by an allowed this illegal arrest to continue. They should have intervened, as they are sworn officers and the university is their turf. If anyone needed to be cuffed and lead away, it was the SLC PD detective.
The perp in all this was one Marcos Torres. Illegal alien?
May the hospital draw blood from an unconscious person for medical reasons?
“It does not matter that he is a trained phlebotomist. He is not an employee of the hospital, therefore he has no rights to perform a medical procedure on a patient. A hospital is not going to allow any Tom, Dick and Harry to walk in off the street to administer a medical procedure on a patient. They may be able to draw blood at a police station for DUI, but not in a hospital.”
lol
That wreck was horrific. I saw the perp’s vehicle swerve in front of the semi leaving the semi driver no reaction time. I can’t tell from the video, but am curious if it’s been determined whether or not the severe swerve by the perp was caused by a PIT maneuver done by the police.
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