I have such deep respect for nurses. As a good friend constantly reminds me, “It is what it is,” and I’ve spent a lot of my life in hospitals. I’ve been admitted to our local hospital several times through the ER, and after a stay in January of this year, I sent a letter to the President of Kishwaukee & Valley West Hospitals, which read, in part:
Dear Sir,
I am writing to thank you for the excellent care I received during my recent stay at your facility. This is not just a case of patient-caregiver adoration. I have been dealing with an underlying medical condition called Transverse Myelitis for a decade, so I know whereof I speak.
Your staff listened to me, and displayed an eagerness to learn about my disease, since few of them had ever treated or even heard of such a case before. My needs are so unusual and specific, that it often caused some confusion for the staff, who handled it all in stride. I tend to direct my health care since I have so much experience dealing with my own body. They allowed me to participate in my health care decisions, and it was a team effort between my family, myself, the hospitalist, and your hands-on providers, that made my quick recovery possible.
Everyone I encountered, from housekeeping to food service to the tireless CNAs to the incredible Florence Nightingales (okay, I admit a little adoration for the nurses) were friendly, compassionate, and professional, and at all times, sought to make me as comfortable as possible.
Only a few short months later, in April, I was again taken by ambulance to the emergency room. After spending six hours in the ER, of which I have very little recollection, I had just gotten settled into my room, when this cute, young nursing assistant comes bouncing in, and says, “Hi Mr. Dunn. Nice to see you again. Do you remember me? I’m Becky.”
I responded, trying to make some sense of reality, “Hi Becky. Ya, one more stay and I think we’ll be officially dating.”
She beamed happily, and said, “By the way, thank you for the letter.”
Now I was really lost.
“The letter you wrote. We have it up in the break room.”
Then it dawned on my hazy mind. The letter I sent to the hospital president must have worked its way back to the nurses. I imagined kudos being given all the way down the chain.
My wife was not amused when being discharged seemed like old, home week as I said my good-byes.
After I got home, I had delivered to the nurses’ station a large package of Mrs. Fields cookies in a Happy Nurses Week tin. I have not been back since, so I don't know how they liked the cookies, (although I am starting to miss Becky).
I know what it's like to be scared and in pain, and look up into those caring, competent faces, and know you are safe.
This video, taken from police body-cam footage, hit the internet late last week, and quickly went viral. As egregious as the incident was, a devastating natural disaster in Texas, the presidential pardon of a scofflaw sheriff, and the repeal of a program that allowed young AMERICANS to stay in the only country they've ever known, seemed to take precedence.
In case you've been preoccupied with other matters, in brief, the story goes like this:
On July 26th, a high-speed chase with police ended when the vehicle driven by the suspect, crossed lanes into oncoming traffic, and smashed head-on into a tractor-trailer. Both vehicles exploded from the impact and caught fire. The suspect was killed, and the truck driver was rushed to the University of Utah Hospital, with severe burns.
While hospital staff worked on their patient, Salt Lake City Police Detective Jeff Payne demanded that burn unit charge nurse Alex Wubbels perform a blood draw on the unconscious man. Citing state and federal law, as well as hospital policy, nurse Wubbels refused to comply, and instead chose to protect the patient under her care.
The video shows nurse Wubbels calmly and professionally explaining to Detective Payne (and we’ll skip the irony of the name for now) that without a warrant or the patient’s consent she could not legally perform the blood draw. It should be noted that the victim was NOT under arrest, and NOT a suspect in the incident that resulted in the crash. In fact, the truck driver, 43-year-old William Gray, is a reserve officer with the Rigby, Idaho police department. [After the release of the video, the Rigby Police Department praised nurse Wubbels in a statement, which read in part, “Protecting the rights of others is a truly heroic act.”]
As the graphic and disturbing images show, the balding, middle-aged, mustachioed, Detective Payne stands in a doorway, impatiently folding his arms across his ample waistline. Without provocation, Detective Payne shouts, “We’re done! No, we’re done!” and lunges at nurse Wubbels. He roughly manhandles the much smaller woman across the ward, and pushes her up against the exit door. Detective Payne jerks her arms behind her back, and snaps her into handcuffs, as if she were a criminal suspect. Nurse Wubbels screams, “Please, you're hurting me. I've done nothing wrong!” as Detective Payne shoves her into an unmarked police car, and belts her in.
All this transpired while several hospital security personnel and staff stood by. Another uniformed Salt Lake City officer at the scene seemed either too reluctant or too surprised to get involved.
In the full 18-minute video, Lieutenant James Tracy, the watch commander on duty who actually called for the arrest, shows up at the scene. Although it is hard to hear, he attempts to explain to (the still handcuffed and strapped inside a police car) nurse Wubbels, “Listen to me, if we're doing wrong, there are civil remedies. OK? It's called first reporting mistreating.” He then informs her that she could be charged with interfering with an investigation, and obstruction of justice.
This might be a good place to mention that Alex was a member of the U.S. alpine ski team, and competed in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.
After getting in nurse Wubbels’ face for 10 minutes, he shuts the door, and confronts a hospital employee who is standing by talking on a cell phone. Lieutenant Tracy says, "Your policy right now is contravening (I'm so happy they teach cops big words) what I need. There’s a very bad habit up here of your policy interfering with my law.”
To add insult to injury, the video also recorded Detective Payne speaking to another officer outside the hospital, that as a first responder, “I‘ll bring them all the transients and take good patients elsewhere.”
Nurse Wubbels was eventually released without charge.
In the firestorm that followed, Detective Payne and Lieutenant Tracy were placed on [paid] administrative leave, and Detective Payne was fired from his job at Gold Cross Ambulance where he worked as a PARAMEDIC! I’d hate to be sick or injured, and have this dickhead working on me.
Gordon Crabtree, interim chief executive of the hospital, said, “This will not happen again,” and praised nurse Wubbels for “putting her own safety at risk to protect the rights of patients.”
Margaret Pearce, chief nursing officer for the University of Utah hospital system, said she was “appalled” by the officer’s actions, and has implemented changes in hospital protocol to avoid any repetitions. “Police will no longer be permitted in patient-care areas, such as the burn unit, and emergency room. Instead of interacting with nurses, law enforcement officers will be directed to health supervisors, who are highly trained on rules and laws, and those interactions won't take place in patient care areas. This will guarantee that nurses devote themselves entirely to patient care without interruptions, while other officials deal with police requests.”
This episode once-again points out the mindset of these individuals. Lawful or unlawful, right or wrong, logical or nonsensical, failure to immediately comply with any order they deem fit to utter will result in arrest, and the least resistance or hesitation will result in the use of deadly force. We’re used to these guys whipping out their dicks so we all can see how big they are, but the problem is, once the cock comes out, it's only a hair trigger away from bullets spewing forth.
In a hospital setting, the situation could have quickly escalated into a bloodbath (by a cop who supposedly underwent de-escalation training). These aggressive bastards are walking around with guns on their hips. Detective Payne was not confronting a gangbanger in a dark hallway, he was not issuing commands in a terrorist crisis, he was accosting a nurse in a critical care unit. He tied up the valuable time of police officers, nurses, hospital staff, and put patients in jeopardy. It was a rogue cop with anger (and other) issues that disturbed the peace, and placed innocent and vulnerable civilians at risk. I have great respect for first responders, but this out of control cop was responding only to his own testosterone.
“I stood my ground. I stood for what was right, which was to protect the patient,” said nurse Wubbels.
Perhaps this story may be best summed up in nurse Wubbels’ own words - "This is crazy!"
Watch the full 18-minute video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFzqEvJvqE
Excellent as always but completely on-topic. What's that all about!
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