Police Arrest Nurse in Utah For Refusing To Draw Blood from Unconscious Patient (REACTION)

Nurse Alex Wubbels of Salt Lake City, Utah was arrested at her place of employment, a hospital, for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient to give to the police. Apparently the police thought she was interfering with an investigation. But the reality is that she was following not only the rules of the hospital, but the law of the land. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, also known as HIPAA, has clear rules that regulate privacy of patients. Most of the act is about digital information being distributed, but it also covers physical information which includes things like blood samples.

The entire incident was captured on police body cam video. Most likely from onlookers’ cell phones and also hospital surveillance cameras. In the video, Wubbels is clearly seen showing the police officer what the law is on a sheet of paper that she had printed out. Blood samples can only be taken from a patient if there is a warrant, if the patient gives consent, or if the patient is under arrest. None of those three requirements were present. Therefore, the police request to get a blood sample was denied. As a result, the officer seemed to become enraged and proceeded to arrest the nurse.

Earlier in the week, there had been a high-speed police chase. The police were after a man named Marcos Torres. As he was in his vehicle trying to escape police at a high rate of speed, he crashes head-on into the semi trailer of reserve police officer named William Gray. Torres dies and Gray becomes severely injured with burns and more.

The police, most likely in an effort to mitigate damages that they may face when Gray awakes from his coma, want to get his blood sample to determine if he was under the influence at the time of the crash. Which is what set the whole unfortunate chain of events up. So in their effort to minimize their liability in Gray’s recovery, they may have incurred many more expenses than they would have ever imagined. A lawsuit will most likely come from the nurse, the hospital, and Gray. This case does not represent the vast majority of officers who behave in a proper and correct way. But what it does represent is an example of when people do the wrong thing.

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