|
Lawsuit filed
over forced strip search
(August/September
2006 Issue)
By Pamela Berard
A 50-year-old Massachusetts woman with psychiatric disabilities
filed a federal lawsuit against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
in June, alleging she was forcibly undressed by five male security
guards last year during a visit to the emergency department for
migraine treatment.
Cassandra Sampson, who says she pleaded to keep her pants on because
of a history of sexual abuse, charges she was physically bruised,
emotionally devastated and became suicidal after the incident.
The lawsuit seeks more than $1 million in damages and a change
in the hospital policy regarding disrobing of people with psychiatric
disabilities, in particular, forcible stripping by security guards.
According to the lawsuit, Sampson went to Beth Israel's Emergency
Department on March 22, 2005, for migraine treatment at the referral
of her primary care physician. Sampson, who has a history of self-injury,
was moved to the psychiatric portion of the department after admitting
to a triage nurse that she had struggled with safety issues, although
she was not suicidal, did not have any desire to injure herself
and had never attempted to injure herself in an emergency department.
The lawsuit alleges the nurse asked her to completely disrobe prior
to her psychiatric evaluation. Sampson said she asked to keep her
pants on.
"(Sampson) offered to take off her shirt, her shoes and give them
her purse," explains Susan Stefan, a lawyer for the Center for Public
Representation, and one of the lawyers representing Sampson. "She
did submit to a thorough pat down with security guards present,
which found nothing." She also repeatedly asked for a patient advocate,
and even though one was on the premises, she was denied that request,
Stefan says.
Sampson alleges she was forcibly stripped by five male security
guards as she cried out that she was being raped and sobbed.
Jerry Berger, director of media relations for Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, says the center has decided to refrain from any
comment on this pending legal matter.
Stefan says the policy that mandatory disrobing is expected of
patients on the psychiatric unit is discriminatory under the Americans
with Disabilities Act, by treating people with psychiatric disabilities
disadvantageously with exaggerated fears.
"In most cases, the only increase is the psychiatric crisis. It
increases the chance of injuries to others, it increases the chance
of danger to the patients themselves and many hospitals don't do
this without compromising patient safety," Stefan says. "One of
our messages is that what hospitals believe increases safety isn't
really what feels safe to patients when it comes to having to take
their clothes off. Many, many people with psychiatric disabilities
have histories of terrible sexual abuse, like our client. And she
felt like she was being raped."
Stefan has written a book, "Emergency Department Treatment of the
Psychiatric Patient: Policy Issues and Legal Requirements."
"We did a survey for this book, and mandatory disrobing was a huge
issue in response to our survey," she says.
"We're very sympathetic" to hospitals, Stefan said. "I want to
be very clear; we understand that hospitals need to be safe places.
"Our contention is that doing this makes hospitals less safe. I
think they do it with the best of intentions, but I don't think
that they understand that for example, stripping a struggling patient
is a recipe for injury."
"We're not arguing for a policy that would ban request for clothing
removal," she adds. "We're only saying that before you require a
person with psychiatric disability to remove his/her clothing or
forcibly remove the clothing, there should be a thorough assessment
by a psychiatric professional that documents that the risk involved
in allowing the patient to keep her clothes is greater than the
risk to the patient and others by forcibly stripping.
"As a general matter, those kinds of experiences in emergency departments
of being stripped haunt women and increase their chances of self-injury,"
Stefan says.
Mary Jean Murk, director of psychiatric central services for Maine
Medical Center, says its center's general practice is to request
patients (psychiatric or not) put on a patient gown in the emergency
department. However, she says the policy is currently in the modification
phase. She says some consumers had stated concern about the policy.
"We're trying to maintain the same level of safety and not have
to get into change or not change into gowns," she says.
In any case, "We would not force somebody to change. If we were
worried about weapons or other things we would deal with (those
issues), not with the changing of the clothes," she says.
Joyce Brennan, media relations coordinator of Southcoast Health
System, which has hospitals in the Massachusetts communities of
New Bedford, Fall River and Wareham, says patients who go to the
emergency department are asked to put on a patient gown only if
it's appropriate to their care. "For example, a hand injury probably
would not require wearing a patient gown, but an abdominal complaint
would," she says.
"If the patient is not comfortable with putting the gown on the
health care provider would work toward a comparable solution," she
says.
|
