Just how stupid are some police?
As I have it from various news sources, a nurse at the University of Utah hospital apparently knows her job and the law better than Detective Jeff Payne, who arrived to draw blood on a comatose patient who had been struck by a speeding vehicle in a police chase, as an innocent bystander.
One can only imagine the police wanted blood to show the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he was assaulted by a speeding vehicle.
The patient's nurse knows that drawing blood on a patient without the patient's permission is assault, legally, as we were all told when we were in training in hospitals.
The detective apparently was not taught this point of law.
The nurse calmly schools the detective that to draw the blood he needs: 1/ The patient's permission--not possible in a comatose patient 2/ A warrant, which can be obtained electronically or 3/ The police can arrest the patient.
The nurse does what we are all trained to do: She gets her supervisor on the phone and the supervisor tells the cop to back off and the detective claims he's talked to his superior officer, "my lieutenant" who orders him to arrest the nurse, over the phone.
So, now we have two supervisors, not on the scene, who are part of the problem, not the solution, although only one of them is dead wrong about the law.
Since the patient happens to be a victim of a crime, namely the car chase crash, arresting him apparently did not appeal to Detective Payne, so he arrested the nurse instead and hauled her off to his police car, for the crime of "obstructing justice."
So many questions leap to mind:
1/ Where was hospital security?
2/ Where was the nurse's supervisor?
3/ Where was the hospital administration?
4/ Where were the interns, residents, other nurses who might have rallied to her defense, or at the very least, called the police.
No, wait, it was the police who were assaulting the nurse.
5/ Why was the detective allowed to walk past the waiting room to the patient's room?
Ordinary citizens are not allowed in a patient's room or in operating rooms or on wards without security screening. Should we not demand the same of police, given this behavior? If the patient was actually in the burn unit, he would be under protective isolation and you'd have to gown and glove to draw the blood. Did this detective know how to draw blood in a sterile fashion?
Another question: Why was this detective not fired summarily, immediately and seriously? Why was his lieutenant not fired?
And where is the mayor of Salt Lake City in all this?
The other thing you might note is this all happened after a high speed police chase. How was the public served by this chase, and by putting this truck driver, who, as far as any responsible official has said, was an innocent bystander and still does not know his nurse stuck up for him.
But more to the point: What level of arrogance do police function with daily? They give an order and expect you to obey? Where is that in the constitution?
As I have it from various news sources, a nurse at the University of Utah hospital apparently knows her job and the law better than Detective Jeff Payne, who arrived to draw blood on a comatose patient who had been struck by a speeding vehicle in a police chase, as an innocent bystander.
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| Alex Wubbels, RN |
One can only imagine the police wanted blood to show the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he was assaulted by a speeding vehicle.
The patient's nurse knows that drawing blood on a patient without the patient's permission is assault, legally, as we were all told when we were in training in hospitals.
The detective apparently was not taught this point of law.
 |
| Detective Jeff Payne, Salt Lake City Police |
The nurse calmly schools the detective that to draw the blood he needs: 1/ The patient's permission--not possible in a comatose patient 2/ A warrant, which can be obtained electronically or 3/ The police can arrest the patient.
The nurse does what we are all trained to do: She gets her supervisor on the phone and the supervisor tells the cop to back off and the detective claims he's talked to his superior officer, "my lieutenant" who orders him to arrest the nurse, over the phone.
So, now we have two supervisors, not on the scene, who are part of the problem, not the solution, although only one of them is dead wrong about the law.
Since the patient happens to be a victim of a crime, namely the car chase crash, arresting him apparently did not appeal to Detective Payne, so he arrested the nurse instead and hauled her off to his police car, for the crime of "obstructing justice."
 |
| Who is the bad guy in this picture? |
So many questions leap to mind:
1/ Where was hospital security?
2/ Where was the nurse's supervisor?
3/ Where was the hospital administration?
4/ Where were the interns, residents, other nurses who might have rallied to her defense, or at the very least, called the police.
No, wait, it was the police who were assaulting the nurse.
5/ Why was the detective allowed to walk past the waiting room to the patient's room?
Ordinary citizens are not allowed in a patient's room or in operating rooms or on wards without security screening. Should we not demand the same of police, given this behavior? If the patient was actually in the burn unit, he would be under protective isolation and you'd have to gown and glove to draw the blood. Did this detective know how to draw blood in a sterile fashion?
Another question: Why was this detective not fired summarily, immediately and seriously? Why was his lieutenant not fired?
And where is the mayor of Salt Lake City in all this?
The other thing you might note is this all happened after a high speed police chase. How was the public served by this chase, and by putting this truck driver, who, as far as any responsible official has said, was an innocent bystander and still does not know his nurse stuck up for him.
But more to the point: What level of arrogance do police function with daily? They give an order and expect you to obey? Where is that in the constitution?
Mad Dog,
ReplyDeleteYesterday I happened to watch the 19 minute version of this incident. Prior to that, I'd only seen the 4 or 5 minute video that was circulating. The longer version of this travesty further demonstrates how heroic the nurse was and how despicably the police behaved. What can be seen in the longer video is what went on once the nurse was hauled off to the cruiser. At that point she was surrounded by four cops-not one. Soon the arresting officer's supervisor was on the screen explaining to the nurse how she was in the wrong and had committed a crime by not doing what the cop had requested. Impressively, even with this additional pressure, the nurse never wavered in her defense and support of the patient. The video also shows a hospital employee in a white shirt who follows her to the cruiser and never leaves the scene throughout. It was unclear to me what his role at the hospital was, but he remained a constant witness to what was going down.
Now the police supervisor is also on administrative leave and the FBI was called in a couple days ago. Oh and Officer Payne-the arresting cop-was fired from his part time job as an ambulance driver after he's heard on the longer video saying he plans to bring homeless patients to that hospital and "good patients" to another. What a prize he is..Thank God for video cameras. Who would believe any of this were it not caught on camera.
Anyway, one of the reasons the FBI is involved is to determine if there were civil rights violations, I believe against the nurse, but what about the poor comatose patient. Was the police supervisor correct-do police commands supersede hospital policies protecting the patient? One hates to think the long arm-or in this case the wrong arm-of the law extends into one's hospital room...The worst part about watching this was I kept wanting the hospital employee in the white shirt to call someone-reinforcements-the police-but as you say, the police are already there...unfortunately...
Maud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteAs is so often true, you got much deeper into this event than I. I was just irate and then moved on. But as you tell it, the outrage just got more and more profound, the more you saw.
These are our cops--some of them.
Mad Dog