Monday, September 21, 2009

Chicago DUI lawyer wonders if we want police officers arresting nurses for questioning a DUI blood draw?

This Chicago DUI lawyer has commented here and here on hospitals and DUI blood draws. Now comes one of the most outrageous things I've heard this year. The police arrest the nurse who dares question whether she can do a DUI blood draw.


A head emergency room nurse at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital has sued the city and a Chicago Police officer for handcuffing her and putting her in the back of a squad car during a dispute over drawing blood from a suspected drunken driver.

Lisa Hofstra said she was the “charge nurse” in the emergency room on Aug. 1 when the officer approached her at about 4 a.m. The officer requested she perform a blood work-up on a DUI suspect, the lawsuit said.

Hofstra told the officer the suspect needed to be admitted to the hospital before she could draw the person’s blood. Hofstra said she told a police lieutenant that it was the hospital’s protocol to wait until a suspect was admitted, and the lieutenant agreed, she said.

Then Hofstra called her supervisors, but before they could respond, the officer put her in handcuffs in front of her co-workers and escorted her to a squad car, according to the lawsuit.

“I in no way intended to block this police officer’s ability to do his job,” she said in a news conference today. “He went about it in the wrong way. ... I would like him to be reprimanded.”

She was in the car for about 45 minutes before the situation was resolved, Hofstra said. The cuffs were too tight, requiring treatment in the hospital after she was released from custody, she said.

A security video of the incident shows the officer smiling outside the squad car as Hofstra sat inside.

Recently, a commenter said that he hated DUI drivers so much that he was alright with their rights being violated by taking their blood. I wonder if he feels the same way now that the rights being violated belong to the medical personnel who must draw their blood? I also wonder if he would be comfortable with an officer that does what Nurse Hofstra's officer is accused of doing drawing the blood of any one accused?


Thanks Farah.

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Comments are welcome but please do not leave personal information or specific legal questions in the comment field. If you need legal assistance, the best way to get in touch with me is to call my office at 312.944.3973

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Comments are welcome but please do not leave personal information or specific legal questions in the comment field. If you need legal assistance, the best way to get in touch with me is to call my office at 312.944.3973