A  nurse was arrested on July 26 in Salt Lake City, Utah for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient.  City Police detective Jeff Payne ordered Nurse Alex Wubbles to draw blood from the patient.  The hospital has protocols that have to be followed by employees to protect patient rights.  In order for the hospital to be able to draw blood, they must have patient consent, a warrant from police officers, or the patient must be under arrest.  In this case, none of these “conditions” were met.  Wubbles contacted her hospital administrators and had them on speaker phone while talking with Detective Payne.

A video was recorded of the interaction between Wubbles and Payne that has spread throughout the internet.  In the video, Wubbles tells Payne why she cannot draw the patient’s blood and shows him the policy in writing.

Payne forcibly removed Wubbles from the hospital.   When a couple of hospital employees tried to intervene, he threatened to arrest them too.

Since the video went viral, the detective has been fired from his part-time job as a paramedic and put on administrative leave by the Salt Lake police department, pending an internal investigation.   Wubbles has given an interview and expressed that she was disheartened that the hospital security and others did not step in when the incident happened.

This situation can be different in every state and deals with the 4th Amendment right to prevent unreasonable searches and seizures.  There are many lawsuits that deal with this situation.  

Payne handcuffs Wubbles and said, “Ok, no, we’re done, we’re done – you’re under arrest, I said we’re done!