Medical Tyranny: Patient Refuses Rectal Exam, Doctor Won't Butt Out

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Medical Tyranny: Patient Refuses Rectal Exam, Doctor Won't Butt Out

_http://www.naturalnews.com/023301.html_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/023301.html)

by Joanne Waldron _(see all articles by this author)_

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59.html)

 

 

 

(NaturalNews) Many people are under the impression that patients in the U.S.

have the right to decline treatment if they are mentally competent and aware

of the consequences of such a refusal. However, that doesn't seem to be the

case if you visit certain hospitals. A construction worker who was hit in the

head while on the job was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill

Cornell Medical Center where he received eight stitches above his left eyebrow.

When a doctor informed him that he needed to have a rectal exam in order to

ascertain whether or not he sustained a spinal injury, the patient flatly

refused the treatment.

 

What happened next is scary. While _hospital_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/hospital.html) personnel tried to hold the patient

down in order to administer

the exam anyway, very much against the patient's wishes, the patient

accidentally hit a doctor while trying to break loose. Unfortunately, the

hospital

staff did not wish to take " no " for an answer, and the patient was drugged and

later awoke with a tube in his throat and lubricant in his rectum,

handcuffed to a bed. It seems _doctors_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/doctors.html) have

the authority to decide to ignore the wishes of a patient if they feel the

patient is incapable of making an informed decision.

 

While it might be reasonable to give doctors some latitude in these matters,

the story doesn't seem to make sense. If the patient was truly unable to

make an informed decision about his medical care, why were misdemeanor assault

charges filed against him for hitting the doctor? Surely a patient who was

incapable of rational thought should not be held accountable if he were truly

not thinking clearly and only acting out due to an injury? Curiously, they all

thought he was thinking clearly enough to have him arrested for his actions

but not clearly enough to have the right to informed consent concerning his

care.

 

Just how necessary is a rectal exam when someone sustains a head injury,

anyway? Clearly, not everyone who sustains a head injury and goes to an

emergency room receives a rectal exam, and some medical professionals say that

there

are less invasive procedures that can be used to determine the neurological

status of a patient. The patient in this case was quite responsive. He knew

what exam the doctors wanted to do, and he knew why. His lawyer insists that

things should've come to a halt the moment he said " no. "

 

What is most disturbing to health freedom advocates is that the patient did

not prevail in his lawsuit against the hospital. Hopefully, his lawyers will

file an appeal. If any neurological testing needs to be done, perhaps it

would best be done on the jury members who apparently have butts where their

brains should be.

 

References:

 

(_http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn7nIqTvF7zSx6NAjqcHp5xD5AUAD906RT180_

(http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn7nIqTvF7zSx6NAjqcHp5xD5AUAD906RT180) )

 

(_http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/lawsuit/_

(http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/lawsuit/) )

 

 

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