Here’s the latest on this outrageous story. The nurse is, rightly, being praised as a hero protecting her patient from an illegal order.
A Utah nurse said she was scared to death when a police officer handcuffed and dragged her screaming from a hospital after she refused to allow blood to be drawn from an unconscious patient.
After Alex Wubbels and her attorneys released dramatic video of the arrest, prosecutors called for a criminal investigation and Salt Lake City police put Detective Jeff Payne on paid leave Friday.
A second police officer was put on paid leave Saturday as authorities investigated the use of force in the nurse’s arrest.
“This cop bullied me. He bullied me to the utmost extreme,” Wubbels said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And nobody stood in his way.”
The Salt Lake City police chief and mayor also apologized and changed department policies in line with the guidance Wubbels was following in the July 26 incident.
Wubbels, a former alpine skier who competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, said she adhered to her training and hospital protocols to protect the rights of a patient who could not speak for himself.
“You can’t just take blood if you don’t have a legitimate concern for something to be tested,” Wubbels said. “It is the most personal property I think that we can have besides our skin and bones and organs.”
Payne didn’t return messages left at publicly listed phone numbers, and the Salt Lake Police Association union did not respond to messages for comment. The department and a civilian board also are conducting reviews.
“I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer,” Police Chief Mike Brown said.
Related:
Deseret News: ‘Stop! I’ve done nothing wrong’: Nurse shares police video of ‘crazy’ arrest by S.L. officer
Newsweek: Turns out the patient whose blood nurse Alex Wubbels wouldn’t let cops draw was an officer himself
Chicago Tribune: Utah Nurse’s Arrest Raises Questions on Evidence Collection
The officer also put critically ill patients in danger because he took away the nurse that was taking care of them!
Carrie. that’s an excellent point. Plus the stress on everyone else working in the ER, that had to distract and frightened EVERYONE.
Equally alarming are the number of men who stood by and watched and did nothing to intervene when they knew what Payne was doing was wrong.
Additionally, would Payne have acted differently if the nurse had been a man? Inquiring minds wanna know.