The University of Virginia Medical Center is at the center of a new lawsuit that was filed earlier this month. The suit itself was filed by a woman who claims the medical center violated her constitutional rights after she was “sedated by medical staff and forced to give blood and urine samples after a suicide attempt.”
The University of Virginia Medical Center is at the center of a new lawsuit that was filed earlier this month. The suit itself was filed by a woman who claims the medical center violated her constitutional rights after she was “sedated by medical staff and forced to give blood and urine samples after a suicide attempt.”
In the lawsuit, the woman is identified simply as Jane Doe. After her experience at the medical center, she alleges in the suit that “staff violated her Fourth and 14th Amendment rights by giving her psychoactive and anti-anxiety drugs, forcefully taking a blood sample and then putting her in restraints to insert a catheter into her bladder to take a urine sample.” What were the events leading up to the incident, though? How did she end up at the University of Virginia Medical Center in the first place?
It all began back on January 11 when she was brought to the emergency room by “rescue personnel and police…after she ran a hose from her car tailpipe into the passenger compartment.” At the medical center, she was “told blood and urine samples would be taken from her, but the lawsuit says she was never told why the samples were being taken.” After she refused to turn over the requested samples, they were forcibly taken from her, allegedly.
In addition to having samples taken from her without consent, the lawsuit also claims she was given medications. However, “medical personnel did not tell the woman what medications they gave her or warn her of possible side effects.” It turns out she was given “ketamine, described by medical texts as a hypnotic sedative producing a dissociative state, prior to being placed in restraints so staff members could place the catheter to retrieve urine,” according to the lawsuit. She was also allegedly given Zyprexa, Benadryl, and Ativan.
As a result, the lawsuit argues that the medical center “violated her right to due process by denying her the right to give informed consent to medical treatment.” The suit states:
“At all times relevant to this complaint, [the woman] was competent to make decisions concerning her treatment. [She] currently is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been actively involved in treatment for that condition. The conduct of the individual defendants severely exacerbated her condition…Plaintiff has a protected liberty interest in refusing unwanted medical treatment, including but not limited to psychoactive medications and intrusive medical procedures. As a direct and proximate result of the conduct described herein, plaintiff suffered physical harm and severe emotional distress.”
When responding to the allegations, officials for the medical center said, “the university does not comment on pending litigation.”
Sources:
Lawsuit: Medical samples taken from woman against her will
Lawsuit Filed in Federal Court Against UVA Medical Center CEO, Staff
Join the conversation!