{"id":4976,"date":"2008-01-18T14:28:24","date_gmt":"2008-01-18T19:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=4976"},"modified":"2008-01-22T17:12:23","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T22:12:23","slug":"distressed_desi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/18\/distressed_desi\/","title":{"rendered":"“Distressed Desi Disputatiously Decries Dragooned Digit in Derriere”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fust things fust: I did not<\/em> come up with the title of this post; DJ Drrrty Poonjabi did when he added this story to our news tab. Talk about dedication– he got a TypeKey account just so he could submit this! His efforts were appreciated by all, in fact, one of you voted for the tip just because of all those “D”s. Since whimsy seems to be in the air<\/a> right now and I like to give the mutineers what they want, I’m borrowing that wacky title. Capiche<\/a>?\nAs for the actual story:<\/p>\n\n

A visit to a hospital for a bump to the head turned into a big pain in the posterior for a Brooklyn construction worker.<\/blockquote>\n\n
Brian Persaud ended up in handcuffs and under arrest when he loudly protested that doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell didn’t need to give him a rectal exam after a piece<\/strong> of wood clocked him on the forehead. [NYDN<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

The injury\/invasion actually occurred back in 2003. Speaking of threes, what does this<\/em> mean:<\/p>\n\n

Medical records state Persaud was “alert and oriented times three” when he was taken to the hospital’s emergency room… [NYDN<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n
According to a lawsuit he later filed, Mr. Persaud was then told that he needed an immediate rectal examination to determine whether he had a spinal-cord injury.<\/strong> He adamantly objected to the procedure, he said, but was held down as he begged, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Please don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d [NYTCityRoom<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Everyone’s favorite line of the story, which will be on away messages, premium super-pokes and tacky, homophobic bumper stickers, soon:<\/p>\n\n

The revelation about the rectal exam set off Persaud, who smacked a doctor during a struggle and yelled, “Where I came from, you don’t put anything in someone’s a——!”<\/strong> [NYDN<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Yes, and that’s why prostate cancer doesn’t get diagnosed, but hey, your kundi hymen is intact and that’s all that matters right?<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, it’s never a good idea to smack a doctor, but that is exactly what Persaud did after he freed an arm whilst flailing and shouting about cultural mores; in response, the ER staff sedated, intubated and then had him arrest-ated. According to one of the NYT blogs<\/a>, they booked him on a misdemeanor while he was still in his hospital gown. Did the indignities ever stop?<\/p>\n\n

A request by the hospital to dismiss Persaud’s lawsuit was denied by Justice Alice Schlesinger, who ordered a trial to start March 31.<\/blockquote>\n\n
Hospital spokesman Bryan Dotson said, “While it would be inappropriate for us to comment on specifics of the case, we believe it is completely without merit and intend to contest it vigorously.” [AP<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Isn’t vigorously contesting it<\/em> what the man was objecting to in the first place?
\nPersaud is claiming that due to the rectal exam, he is now incapacitated by PTSD; he is seeking unspecified damages. Slate’s Explainer<\/a> had this to say, in answer to “Can a doctor force you to undergo a procedure against your will?<\/strong>“, a question which many are asking:<\/p>\n\n

A doctor can’t force anything on a patient who is competent to make medical decisions and refuses care.<\/strong> The idea of consent as a patient’s right goes back at least to 1914, when Benjamin Cardozo (who would later become a Supreme Court justice) ruled in a New York case that “[e]very human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body.” Without a patient’s permission, even a simple physical exam could technically be considered battery.<\/strong> Taken to the extreme, this principle gives individuals the right to refuse life-saving treatment or to seek “Do Not Resuscitate” orders.<\/blockquote>\n\n
Doctors rarely ask permission for routine matters like checking your blood pressure or listening to your lungs, though, on the grounds that they have your tacit consent.<\/strong> They assume you’ve granted permission for a blood test when you cooperate by rolling up your sleeve for the needle. (This principle only applies to tests that can reasonably be expected in the course of an examination. A doctor can’t assume consent for an HIV test when a patient shows up with a cold.) [Slate<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

And most relevant to Persaud’s case:<\/p>\n\n

Doctors can act without a patient’s permission in some situations. If it’s an emergency, and neither a patient nor his family members are capable of making a decision on the spot, doctors might go ahead and presume consent.<\/strong> This could be because the patient is unconscious or because he or she lacks the mental capacity to make an informed decision (as determined by a mental-health professional). [Slate<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

Can’t wait to hear what Sepia Mutiny’s crack cadre of MDs and JDs have to say about this one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fust things fust: I did not come up with the title of this post; DJ Drrrty Poonjabi did when he added this story to our news tab. Talk about dedication– he got a TypeKey account just so he could submit … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}