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.

That doesn't make much sense, for treatment purposes, those caring for the patient can draw any labs, run any tests that are necessary for treating the patient. Blood samples drawn to be included in a criminal case are a very different thing, which is why we typically don't draw those labs for police and why this particular officer was a phlebotomy certified officer. For evidence purposes, there are clear requirements for obtaining those blood samples, which were not met in this case, so no blood can be drawn by the officer.

I don't care what the cops want. I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order. End of issue.

Specializes in ICU.
That someone was me. I can't chose a different career. I have been doing this for 35 years. The nurse in the video made an error in judgment, she is also a big wimp. There is no place for wimps or errors in judgment for nurses.

You have picked such a strange hill to die on. Admin has her back. The Idaho police department the victim is a reserve officer for has thanked her. The SLC PD has apologized and placed the officer on leave (better late than never, I guess). The mayor has called the officer's actions completely unacceptable. What was her error in judgement?

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
I don't care what the cops want. I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order. End of issue.

But they didn't have any sort of court order or warrant, *that* is the very point! The issue wasn't consent for a specimen for treatment, it was a blood draw for legal purposes. The police department already had an agreement with that healthcare facility outlining the exact requirements for legally obtaining the results of labwork, or having labwork drawn for the express purpose of legal proceedings. No one is saying that such a test should not have been ordered if medically indicated. The nurse's objection was to drawing blood and handing over the results at the demand of law enforcement who were breaking an already established protocol.

Specializes in Critical Care.
I don't care what the cops want. I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order. End of issue.

And there's nothing that stops you from doing that, it's reasonable to assume that the ER had already drawn labs on this patient. What we're talking about is whether a police officer can draw blood for the purposes of an investigation, not for treatment purposes.

Specializes in ICU.
I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order.

... which is the issue she was arguing. They had no court order. No warrant, no subpoena, nothing. It was also unlikely they would get one as the person they wanted blood on WAS NOT THE SUSPECT OF A CRIME.

I don't care what the cops want. I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order. End of issue.

I don't care what the cops want either. But I do care about what my hospital policy is-(the one that protects the hospital from getting sued that doesn't get me fired) and what the law is that doesn't get me sued by the patient or my license pooped on.

You're right...the cops can get the tox screen by going to medical records and flashing their badge with the appropriate paperwork. but that's not the same as a legal blood draw, which is what we're talking about.

Dude didn't have a warrant or consent. No need to arrest someone for that. Now he'll probably get fired. End of issue indeed.

I don't care what the cops want. I want the lab results to treat my patient.

If you were unconscious I would want to know WHY. A tox screen is required. Cops can get those results, with a court order. End of issue.

That's actually up to the doctor to decide not you, unless you are NP. Doctors decide what to order on the pt. Tox screen maybe be what he orders or he may look at the circumstances and deem it uneccessary, especially if it's known that the other car was responsible for causing the accident. I've seen plenty not order a tox screen if they didn't feel it was necessary. Pt was verbal at some point in the ER.

The cop has to meet requirements to preform the legal blood draw which is what is admissible in court and follows protocol. They had nothing in this guy. There would be no grounds for court order, much less a warrant. This is pretty common in the ER.

I love all the know it alls who've obviously had 0 real ER experience here. Especially the ones who like to boldly assess the situation with most of the details overlooked if they read the article at all. You're awesome.

Remember this case next time you get jury duty. Not all cops are selfless angels. Sometimes they lie and cheat and do the wrong thing. Last time I got called for jury duty, I'm pretty sure the entire panel that was picked would gladly agree the moon was made of cheese, if a cop told them it was.

they got a complete panel of boot-lickers. The most pathetic thing I've ever seen.

Seriousness aside, the nurse practically hit the lottery.

Specializes in New Grad 2020.
A lot like Detective Danny Reagan on Blue Bloods.

This is why we can't always trust government.

So glad her boss and Admin backed her up. Let's see if they turn on her at any point.

I know police have a seriously difficult job, but they have to follow the law and they have to give respect if they expect it in return. We are all learning.

This sweet and precious nurse will, I hope, get a huge settlement and an apology from this total dog, who gives all police a bad name. You can see he's old and the younger police are amazed by his behavior but do not intervene with their Bro in Blue.

He puts her in the front seat because he knows he's in the wrong. He's trying to terrify her (and succeeding) in the hopes that she or another staff member will back down and draw the blood.

All he had to do was get a warrant or find a family member for consent. Although one does wonder why the innocent victim's blood was needed.

We should all write to the Utah state and federal senators and congressmen, as well as the Governor.

Tremendously disturbing. So glad her coworkers witnessed this and tried to help her.

i agree writing to our elected officials is a good thing to consider

Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
The more I think about this the more it bothers me and the crazier I think it is, and I've already said I suspect he is a sociopath.

He literally attacked an employee who was acting in accordance with her employer's written policy (which is rather "standard" by all appearances), which she gave him the benefit of actually (and calmly) showing TO HIM. She acted very professionally but I suspect part of her apparent calmness is that she is also already SCARED in the portion of the recording we're talking about.

How does this guy not just drop this conversation and take it up with an authority figure within the organization? It is certainly not an emergency that he have ANY particular information.

So very disturbing.

I'm suspecting a fat personnel file and maybe some connections in high places. How many lawsuits have been quietly settled on his behalf? Maybe it'll all come out now.

Really looking forward to anonymous' dump on this officer - another forum mentioned this cop had some serious accusations in his history.

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