Video RN screaming, dragged into police car d/t refused blood draw on unconscious patient!

Nurses General Nursing

Updated:   Published

July 31 2017, guy fleeing police crosses median and slams into truck and dies. The truck catches fire severely burning the innocent driver, Mr. Gray, who was taken to SLC University. Police later showed up demanding to the UNCONSCIOUS innocent patient's blood. RN Alex shows them the policy requiring consent, arrest, or a warrant. Hospital administration back up RN Alex.

Police aggressively arrest RN Alex and removes her from the hospital. Officer body cam insanity released today:

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:

Video shows Utah nurse screaming, being dragged into police car after refusing to let officer take blood from unconscious victim - The Salt Lake Tribune

Long video body cam:

In this video, the aggressive officer can be heard saying that he will ensure all the "transients" are brought to this hospitals ED since they won't cooperate after being told the administrators and privacy officer are on their way.

Original Crash (graphic):

Interesting note about Alex, she was a 2x Olympian, US Ski Team member, and national champion is Slalom and GS.

Specializes in Critical Care.

An occasional bad apple is one thing, it happens, what's more concerning in this case is that the response to the situation was clearly systemic rather than isolated.

The incident was apparently initiated as much by the officer on the scene as by the watch commander, who then later showed up to berate the nurse about there being a frequent problem with the nursing staff getting in their way (which is not apparently true), he complained that the hospital's policy conflicts with the law even though the policy is actually just a restating of the law, a law which absolutely should be part of his basic knowledge base.

The Chief of Police put out a statement that he was aware of all the circumstances of the incident within 12 hours of it occurring, yet both of these officers were continuing to work without restrictions except for officer Payne who was no longer doing blood draws (but otherwise still working). It was only when the incident came under the scrutiny of the public a month later that these officers were removed from active police duties. In other words, this wasn't just a bad apple, there's rotting from the leaves to the roots.

Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

This is the way the police operate. You are either going to do what I say, or I'm going to make you do what I say. That's the mentality of law enforcement and it stems from their ****** training.

https://allnurses.com/nursing-news/video-rn-screaming-1116872.html

I don't understand why she was arrested when she had the policy in her hand and administrator on the phone. What would have happened if she wasn't the patient advocate?

Resisting arrest is not lawful. Yes , the cop was wrong and she was wrongfully arrested. But think for a minute what it would be like if everyone who was ever placed under arrest was allowed to resist because they thought they shouldnt be arrested. Do you think drug dealers and murderers think they should go to jail? Its not that easy. I think they said she was released 20 minutes later. So resisting does nothing except escalate the situation.

With all due respect your analogy is not appropriate. Drug dealers and murders and even those who break petty-but-well-known laws know damn full well they have done something wrong. This gal was completely blindsided and thus confused about what was happening because she was being ASSAULTED and had done nothing wrong. In this country the police are not allowed to attack such individuals. She looks terrified. The officer's very first step he took after he decided "WE'RE DONE" was not to begin an appropriate arrest procedure but to lunge at her, try to knock that phone out of her hand and grab her while she stood there in a civilized manner with multiple witnesses in a very controlled situation. He is the ONLY person out of control.

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Why wasn't management physically in the department?

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
https://allnurses.com/nursing-news/video-rn-screaming-1116872.html

I don't understand why she was arrested when she had the policy in her hand and administrator on the phone. What would have happened if she wasn't the patient advocate?

Merged with existing thread

Specializes in ICU + Infection Prevention.
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Resisting arrest is not lawful. Yes , the cop was wrong and she was wrongfully arrested. But think for a minute what it would be like if everyone who was ever placed under arrest was allowed to resist because they thought they shouldnt be arrested. Do you think drug dealers and murderers think they should go to jail? Its not that easy. I think they said she was released 20 minutes later. So resisting does nothing except escalate the situation.

Sorry for hitting this twice but this argument really does sicken me. I'm just sort of musing the fact of life which is that someone will always come forward in attempts to defend the absolutely indefensible. NO ONE threatened this man; this officer. He was in ZERO danger. Furthermore, the ONLY reason that he can not accomplish what he wants to accomplish is because he himself wants to do it illegally. The fact that he is unable to force/intimidate someone else into breaking the law is THE ONLY REASON that this happened. He had an explosion of bruised ego and absolutely nothing more.

We're all referring to this as an "arrest", but did it ever even qualify as such? Did his body cam just miss the part where he followed proper procedure for "arresting" someone? He did no such thing. He merely attacked and assaulted her and "detained" her against her will unlawfully, while his idiot superior came to the scene to try to bully her into believing she was wrong.

Sickening.

Specializes in Hospice.
Sorry for hitting this twice but this argument really does sicken me. I'm just sort of musing the fact of life which is that someone will always come forward in attempts to defend the absolutely indefensible. NO ONE threatened this man; this officer. He was in ZERO danger. Furthermore, the ONLY reason that he can not accomplish what he wants to accomplish is because he himself wants to do it illegally. The fact that he is unable to force/intimidate someone else into breaking the law is THE ONLY REASON that this happened. He had an explosion of bruised ego and absolutely nothing more.

We're all referring to this as an "arrest", but did it ever even qualify as such? Did his body cam just miss the part where he followed proper procedure for "arresting" someone? He did no such thing. He merely attacked and assaulted her and "detained" her against her will unlawfully, while his idiot superior came to the scene to try to bully her into believing she was wrong.

Sickening.

Did you even read the thread? No one has defended the actions of the cop. What most of us are trying to get across is that trying to restrain an out of control cop in the process of making an arrest will:

- likely get you arrested, too - and charged with any one of a whole raft of criminal charges, many of which are felonies.

- may also get you shot.

- may also get anyone else in the vicinity shot.

Did you even read the thread? No one has defended the actions of the cop. What most of us are trying to get across is that trying to restrain an out of control cop in the process of making an arrest will:

- likely get you arrested, too - and charged with any one of a whole raft of criminal charges, many of which are felonies.

- may also get you shot.

- may also get anyone else in the vicinity shot.

Heron, I think she is referencing the post that implied that the nurse was wrong for "resisting". I tend to agree that she wasn't resisting but rather reacting to an unexpected assault.

With all due respect your analogy is not appropriate. Drug dealers and murders and even those who break petty-but-well-known laws know damn full well they have done something wrong. This gal was completely blindsided and thus confused about what was happening because she was being ASSAULTED and had done nothing wrong. In this country the police are not allowed to attack such individuals. She looks terrified. The officer's very first step he took after he decided "WE'RE DONE" was not to begin an appropriate arrest procedure but to lunge at her, try to knock that phone out of her hand and grab her while she stood there in a civilized manner with multiple witnesses in a very controlled situation. He is the ONLY person out of control.

Not to mention that she was in charge of someones care and that person could have suffered from her absence. There just needs to be more protection for docs and nurses from govt. Crazy things happen in the hospital and cops can get emotionally unstable and act out just like anyone else. I know getting another department involved was said to be unsafe above, but it's helped out in the past at my ER job (specifically, with the jerk at county) Just getting another officer from the city who we there to deescalated and mediate had helped us out. And not a bystander cop, someone who you call in specifically for the task of mediating, so there is both responsibility and authority given to that person.

This was a specially trained phlebotomy officer sent to collect blood, not an officer coming off of a hot pursuit. Knowing the policy was his job.

People are seeing this video and are beginning to question if 'roid rage is a factor in this and similar incidents. Specifically, are some officers using anabolic steroids and is it resulting in violent bursts of aggression?

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