When the story broke about the forced catheterization of a suspected drunk driver, whose blood and breath just wasn’t cooperating, the question arose as to why healthcare professionals were so compliant with police demands.  We now have an answer, courtesy of Chicago Nurse Lisa Hofstra.

Lisa Hofstra was the nurse in charge of the emergency room at Illinois Masonic about 4 a.m. on Aug. 1 when she said an officer named Rodriguez asked her to take blood samples from a man to determine his blood-alcohol level, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. Hofstra allegedly told the officer the man had to become a patient first and she wanted to consult with her supervisor.

The officer cuffed her and placed her in the back of a squad car, according to the lawsuit.

The question wasn’t compliance with the officer’s demand, but timing.  He wanted it now. She refused to jump.  What makes this particularly unusual is that cops and emergency room personnel work together regularly, and usually have a strong bond.  But Lisa Hofstra didn’t feel the love as she was held captive by Officer Rodriguez (first name unknown).

 The question raised is whether the cop was simply so taken by his omnipotence that Nurse Hofstra’s failure to jump upon demand outraged him to the point of seizure, or whether there was some other factor at work.  Chicago’s own Mark Draughn, the  WindyPundit, isn’t buying that this was merely the refusal to draw blood upon demand, but speculates that Lisa Hofstra did more.

I don’t know any more than this, but clearly something crazy happened here. What kind of nutball cop disrupts the operation of a hospital emergency room by dragging away the triage nurse for no good reason?

There seems to be something missing from this story, however. I doubt that even the craziest nutball cops do things like this (very often) to people who are courteous and polite. My guess is that Nurse Hofstra “mouthed off” or committed some other imagined offense that cops like to interpret as a crime. Triage nurses have to be decisive and firm with demanding people, so perhaps she was a bit brusque in her dealings with officer Rodriguez.

Mark may be right, particularly given his qualified statement that it could be some “imagined offense that cops like to interpret as a crime.”  That’s a hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through.  But I see no reason to speculate.  After all, the cop walked into Nurse Hofstra’s home making demands, not the other way around.  Her demeanor wasn’t in issue as she gets to behave any darn way she wants in her emergency room.

The problem is that the power to seize is unchecked on the street.  Sure, it is subject to review afterward, but there was no one in that ER equipped to put a stop to Officer Rodriguez’s insanity.  What if patients died awaiting care?  No doubt Officer Rodriguez had more important concerns on his mind, like proving the driver he stopped was drunk than to consider the ramifications of his exertion of authoritah.

Given the generally cooperative nature of police and healthcare workers in the ER, it’s likely that Rodriguez’s expectation was that his request, which turned immediately into a command upon Lisa Hofstra’s failure to immediately accede, would be performed then and there.  This points not to the problem of medical priorities, or medical ethics, or even the cooperation between ER personnel and cops, but to the inability to stop a cop from doing whatever he, in his fit of pique, chooses, even if that means he gets to hold a charge nurse hostage until a hospital ER bows to his will.

Of course, it’s just another isolated incident.