A Utah nurse released police bodycam footage from a July incident where an officer dragged her outside a hospital, put hand-cuffs on her, and put her into a patrol car for refusing to give a patient's blood to police.
video-player.buzzfeed.com / Via Karra Porter via Salt Lake City Police Department
The July 26 footage, released Thursday, shows Alex Wubbels, a nurse at University Hospital in Salt Lake City, in a standoff with Detective Jeff Payne over whether the officer could draw blood from a patient who was unconscious following a car crash.
Wubbels tells Payne in the video that hospital policy dictates that for blood cannot be drawn from an unconscious patients unless they are under arrest or there is a warrant signed by a judge allowing the blood to be taken.
Payne insisted that Wubbels let him take the blood, threatening to arrest the nurse if she did not comply.
"I either go away with blood in vials or body in tow," Payne said.
The video footage shows Wubbels, who has worked at University Hospital since 2009, calling several hospital officials who repeated the policy on taking blood from an unconscious patient.
“Sir, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse," a supervisor is heard telling Payne.
“We’re done here,” Payne responds as he grabs Wubbels by her arms leading her outside the building as she screamed, "Help! Help! Somebody help me! Stop! I did nothing wrong. This is crazy! "
Karra Porter via Salt Lake City Police Department
Once outside, Payne pulled Wubbels hands behind her back, handcuffed her, and put her inside a patrol car, telling her she obstructed justice by preventing him from doing his job.
"I'm also obligated to my patients," she tells the officer. "It's not up to me."
Karra Porter via Salt Lake City Police Department
Wubbels — who was not criminally charged — released the footage Thursday at a press conference with her lawyer, where she called on police officers to improve their treatment of hospital workers.
"I just feel betrayed, I feel angry. I feel a lot of things," Wubbels said at the press conference. "And I am still confused. I’m a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe."
Karra Porter via Salt Lake City Police Department
“I can’t sit on this video and not attempt to speak out both to re-educate and inform,” Karra Porter, Wubbel's attorney said at the press conference. Police agencies “need to be having conversations about what is appropriate intervention.”
Salt Lake City police did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment but Sgt. Brandon Shearer told the Salt Lake Tribune the department started an internal investigation into the incident.
Shearer said Payne had been suspended from the department's blood draw unit but remained on active duty.
"A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing," Wubbels said Thursday, according to the Desert News. "But blood is your blood. That’s your property."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2iObhpX
No comments:
Post a Comment