> As an aside, and with hindsight and some thought, maybe the best way to handle it was to draw the blood and store it until the pt regained consciousness. <
I must respectfully disagree. As an analogy, suppose the cops want to search your house, and they don’t have a warrant. The come to your house anyway. But no one is there to give consent.
Would it be okay for them to search anyway, and then hope for your consent when you return?
I think that's a little more analogous to my example. I didn't say that my idea was a good one. :-)
It's worth noting that the patient is only "protected" if he did nothing at all wrong. Let's just say that he had a beer before getting into the truck. Still no way that he was at fault - person who hit him was fleeing from the police. BUT, it would open the possibility for the police to arrest him, charge him with vehicular manslaughter, civil suit from the dead guy's family, might lose his license, etc etc.
Flip side, if the cops are looking for someone to blame and they "Smell Alcohol" on his breath when there was nothing to smell... a blood test would exonerate him.
But, regardless, the cop was trying to get away with something that was clearly outside the law.