Alex Wubbels, the head nurse of the Burn Unit at the University of Utah’s hospital, was professional, calm, and totally correct when she refused to administer a blood test without a warrant.

Unfortunately, the police officer, Detective Jeff Payne, who’d been with the police blood draw program for several years …wasn’t.

The background of the story is this. The patient suffered burns when a suspect fleeing the police crashed into his vehicle. Detective Payne demanded blood be drawn and Alex Wubbels refused because again, there was no warrant. Numerous supervisors reaffirmed Alex’s decision as well, and it must be noted that all the medical personnel followed the law.

The situation deteriorated from there.

Yes, you saw that correctly. Detective Payne, in spite of being informed that a warrant was needed, persisted and lost his temper. He crowded Alex, then threw her up against the wall after dragging her outside the hospital, cuffed her, and stuffed her in the vehicle. 

This incident should never have happened. The patient was not only unable to give consent because he was unconscious, he was the VICTIM in the accident! It is a mystery why a blood draw was deemed necessary. It’s unconscionable that Detective Payne, who admits on the video that he was going too far, threw all his training out the window! As for the University of Utah police officer, he should be reprimanded or even fired for standing by and doing nothing during this incident.

Thursday, Alex and her attorney Karra Porter held a press conference.

Understandably, she was upset about how everything went down and is traumatized to boot.

“I just feel betrayed, I feel angry. I feel a lot of things. And I am still confused. I’m a health care worker. The only job I have is to keep my patients safe. A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it’s some simple thing. But blood is your blood. That’s your property. And when a patient comes in in a critical state, that blood is extremely important and I don’t take it lightly,” she said.

She has called for better training of the police in regards to the laws and regulations that they must adhere to. Will she file a lawsuit? Right now that’s unclear, but it sure seems there are grounds for one.

The Salt Lake police department issued a statement that reads in part:

“I was alarmed by what I saw in the video with our officer and Ms. Wubbles. I am sad at the rift this has caused between law-enforcement and the nurses we work so closely with. I want to be clear, we take this very seriously. Immediate steps were taken and within 12 hours, body cam footage was reviewed and an internal affairs investigation started.

The Mayor also released a statement:

“Like many of you, I watched the video of police officers interacting with University of Utah Medical Center nurse Alex Wubbles for the first time through the media late yesterday. What I saw is completely unacceptable to the values of my Administration and of the values of the Salt Lake City Police Department. I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbles for what she has been through for simply doing her job.

You can read it in its entirety here. The American Nurses Association has responded as well.

Official response from American Nurses Association @ANANursingWorld pic.twitter.com/a0PjyOePG7

— Pam Cipriano (@ANAPresident) September 1, 2017

Again, Payne was a trained phlebotomist and had been doing this for years, thus he knew the law and the regulations inside and out. Both Payne and his lieutenant, who ordered Alex’s arrest, were WAY out of bounds on this.

Full disclosure. This author has had the great pleasure of working with outstanding LEO’s all across the country for years. It is cases like this that every single one of those officers abhors because of the horrible message this sends.

Payne, the lieutenant, the campus police, and the police departments involved have a great deal to answer for on this. Especially since it is cases like this that add to the growing mistrust of law enforcement in this country.