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 ...
BTW, after reading all the comments, I’m sure that at least half of the posters on this thread have the story mixed up.
I’m not sure of all the facts myself.
I’m sure of a couple of facts.
Patient could not consent and Officer asswipe had no warrant.
He can take his phlebotomy skills and go work at Labcorp.
Nope. Read the whole story at the linked article. The victim in the burn unit at the hospital was the innocent truck driver who was injured in a head-on crash caused by a now-dead perp who was running from the law.
The only reason a test would need to be performed is because the victim here is a Commercial Drivers License holder. Apparently, under federal law, a CDL holder must be alcohol tested within 8 hours, and drug tested within 24 hours, of any fatal accident (while driving under the rules of the CDL), regardless of who was at fault.
That being said, not one of the officers involved invoked the federal law citing the need for the draw. Outside a CDL, no one involved in a fatal crash has given implied consent for a blood test, which is what the nurse and hospital administrator were standing on. I'm not sure they were aware of the federal law in this case, and had the cops provided that citation, then the situation would have probably worked out differently.
As an aside, getting a BAC test from a burn victim, which is what the trucker is in the hospital for, may be unreliable due to physiological changes in the blood as a result of severe burns.
The blood chemistry changes as a result of the body's reaction to severe burns, and BAC tests could very well give false numbers.
http://www.expert-tox-blog.com/postmortem-alcohol-formation-in-a-severe-burn-victim/
and
http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/31783-burn-trauma-and-blood-alcohol-content/
From your link:
“It is my sincere desire to get back to a very cooperative, respectful, and friendly relationship with our ‘brothers and sisters in white’ we work so closely with,” [Chief] Brown said.
To which he added: In the meantime, we will bully and shove the nurses around. And if they object, we will arrest them and cuff them.
Video of the accident quite clearly shows the driver in this situation driving a tractor/trailer rig down the road. With respect to the federal law and CDL holders, it matters not if he is in any kind of pay status. He could be a privateer bob-tailing to his next job, and he'd still fall under the federal law.
That law is a requirement of the company.
Keep it real.
Why didn’t the cop get a warrant? Because no judge would give him one.
Lets go play I’m a cop and your not at the hospital.
Kick this shithead out on his ear. Take 500,000 while your at it.
Yes, the ‘victim’ was unconscious but was there a reason to believe alcohol or drugs was involved in the accident and there may have been contributory negligence.
The law actually states that driver involved must submit within 2 hours (alcohol test) or 32 hours (controlled substance test) of a fatal accident regardless of cause, and that the test must be performed by the employer (I'm guessing the employer's responsibility to provide for the test to be done within the time constraints).
It says nothing about the test being administered by the police.
Scroll down to section 383.303.
Note, the law states it's the employer's responsibility to have the driver tested, not the police.
Also, if the test cannot, or has not been performed within the time frame required by law, then it may not be performed, and a written explanation as to why must be provided by the employer. It also covers drivers who are themselves injured, and thus does not prohibit them getting necessary care themselves even if a test is required.
She even had the policy in writing that the police and hospital had agreed upon. She said, “He doesn’t meet any of these conditions, so I can’t do it.” So then the cop goes wild. She needs to take a couple million dollars out of that police department to show them what happens when they hire bad people. In fact, this department needs to have their entire personnel system audited.
It wasn’t just hospital policy, it was an agreement between the cops and the hospital. Even if her supervisor was misinterpreting the policy, notice that the cop was too lazy to go after him for obstruction. Nope, he took a run at the person standing right in front of him as a way to bully the hospital staff into future compliance. Too bad for him that his little plan didn’t work.
When this is over, she’ll be a millionaire and he’ll be bagging groceries, terrified to show his face anywhere outside of whatever little podunk town he lands in. In other words, justice will be served.
It also states that after 2 or 32 hours, all attempts to obtain the sample must cease, and a letter must be submitted as to why the sample was not collected and the test performed. The law states that the driver must make himself available for the test for these periods of time after the crash, but also states the driver may seek medical attention when necessary if the crash results in injury to the CDL driver.
Section 382.303.
Yes, you are correct. Nothing in there about law enforcement testing of any kind.
I had known, but subsequently forgotten, that a CDL driver had to be tested after a fatal accident. I couldn't remember the specifics, so I've since looked it up. I have also placed links to the law in a prior post.
There is no requirement for the cops to perform the test, only the company. It is also time-limited, in that it specifies all attempts to obtain a sample must cease after 2 hours for alcohol testing, and 32 hours for controlled substance testing, and if no sample/testing occurred, a report needed to be filed by the employer to the applicable federal agency.
Absolutely 100% false. Hospitals adhere to strict confidentiality in spite of what law enforcement may want them to do. The insurance provider for the hospital puts on all kinds of training for nurses, doctors, PCAs, staff, etc. that instruct the type of conduct this brave nurse demonstrated for the sole purpose of AVOIDING liability. Absent a statutory triggering mechanism (i.e., search warrant, patient is under arrest) law enforcement gets ZIPPO - that's the standard across the board.
General Information...
801-799-3000
Contact the Police Chief:
Mike Brown
http://slcpd.com/chief/
Spokesperson: Sgt. Brandon Shearer, Christina Judd
Detective Jeff Payne and nurse Alex Wubbels
Payne’s EMT Employer: http://goldcrossambulance.com/
This is Salt Lake City police complaint line. Don’t just be angry, keep the lines loaded 801-799-3351 Let Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown know that it is wrong Detective Jeff Payne and Lt. James Tracy are still on active duty.
here is a link to file an online complaint. This detective must be fired, no compensation, no tax-payer paid out of court settlement.
http://apps.slcgov.com/general/absolutefp/SLCPD_complaint.htm
Blow up their twitter https://twitter.com/slcpd
FB page https://www.facebook.com/slcpd/
> but was there a reason to believe alcohol or drugs was involved in the accident and there may have been contributory negligence <
Okay then. Go get a warrant. How long would it take to get an electronic warrant? Maybe 10 minutes. But the cop didn’t bother to do that.
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