Emergency Room Nurse Arrested For Doing Her Job
Posted by realityrounds on September 21, 2009
This is shocking. An emergency room nurse in Chicago was handcuffed and placed in a police car for 45 minutes because she did not give a DUI suspect a blood test. (watch video here) Lisa Hofstra was in charge in a very busy emergency room when a police officer brought a woman to the ER and demanded Hofstra perform a blood alcohol test on her. The nurse told the officer she would have to consult with her supervisor first, because hospital policy states that a person must be admitted as a patient before any medical tests can be performed. According to reports:
“Hofstra says the officer brought a suspected drunk driver into the ER and demanded a blood alcohol test for the woman.
Hofstra says she explained that it’s hospital protocol to first register a person as a patient before conducting a medical procedure. That’s when Hofstra says the officer became argumentative with both her and her supervisor. At one point, he had to be removed from the nurses station by security but he came back.
“He snucked up behind me grabbed my arms. I didn’t even realize what was happening. I just saw the faces of the people in front of me before I realized I was in handcuffs,” said Hofstra.” ABC 7 News
Hofstra plans on filing a civil lawsuit against the officer and the Chicago Police Department for alleged excessive force and false arrest.
This story is just so strange to me. In my experience nurses and cops get along great on the job. We are often in frequent professional contact with one another, especially in the ER. Our jobs can be very similar. We have to deal with the public at their worst; drunk, on drugs, after assaults, rapes, violence, domestic abuse, etc. We get each other and our selective gallows humor. I will admit that I have been let out of traffic tickets when wearing my scrubs. There is a camaraderie there. It is sad to me that a police officer would treat a nurse, or anyone, with such stunning disrespect. Was his behavior a power trip? Was it sexist in nature? Was he under a huge amount of stress? Was he just a jerk?
So many questions, and I know we only have one side to this story. I can’t wait to hear the response from this cop and the CPD.
Has anyone else out there had a similar experience with a police officer?
RR
atyourcervix said
I wonder what her hospital’s response is to this whole situation. It was said in the video that the hospital gave no response. Makes me wonder too…..will the hospital back her up? Or leave her in the dust?
lpnmon said
Wow. Just wow. Not cool at all. I really hope that the hospital backs her up on this. I understand that the cop was in a hurry, that he probably wanted the BAC numbers to be as close to what they were at the time of the accident as possible, but really. It would have been faster to just register the pt. Did they ever get the blood draw, after all the ensuing drama?
-lpnmon (also a cop’s wife-one of many nurse-cop pairs I know; they really do usually get along…..)
Sean said
Amazing.
Simply speechless about this. There has got to be more to the story. More from the police? More from the nurse/nurses??
Wow.
Nurse Arrested For Doing Her Job?? | My Strong Medicine said
[...] Please be sure to check out the video and original blog post over at Reality Rounds here. [...]
Pampered Mom said
I suspect there’s more to the story than is being told. Many states have requirements as to when a blood draw needs to be done, if it’s past the deadline it doesn’t count and they walk – perhaps given everything that went on it was getting close to the deadline?
On the other hand, I’ve known of instances where hospital staff have refused to follow a court order and the officers were less aggressive.
regina pilatti said
oh my gosh — I have work in the ER for almost 20 years and it is not a busy ER like I am sure this Chicago Hospital is –and yes we do work very closely with the police –but it is our ER – and we are not allow to treat anyone unless they are regesterd –because if someone gets a infection or bad outcome from what we do –now it is our problem and the hospital will not back us up. Plus if this nurse drew the blood before the paient was registered any lawyer could get that thrown out of court because technically -the person was not a patient in the ER at the time. There are so many issues with this case –I cant even believe it went this far. The police officer is not her boss and he had no right to demand her to draw the blood. We do not have to follow their direction. She could have had the police officer go to the waiting room and wait -with the arrest victim and he would have had to wait behimd all the real emergencys we deal with .. most officer know that we push their cases ahead of others even if it isnt a emergency –lastly we remember these police officers–and when you come in for that sore throat or that sprained ankle –guess what?? You are waiting a very long long time –Have A Nice Day Officer