[lit-ideas] Re: 95 year old man tased and beanbagged for not taking his medication
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 16:53:33 -0700
Thanks, Lawrence, for calling our attention to this.
The newspaper reports all say that Mr Wrana was in an 'assisted living'
facility. Although this may just be careless reporting, it would
suggest, if true, that he was in a facility that met the description
given below under 'Assisted Living Facilities.'
http://www.oregon.gov/dhs/spwpd/pages/ltc/ltc_guide/whataremychoices.aspx#alf
If so, I'm not sure why he would have been incapable of deciding whether
or not to take any sort of medication or medication or to undergo any
sort of medical procedure. Simply: he would have been, given the
assumption that assisted living residents have autonomy—as opposed to
residents of locked Alzheimer's and memory care facilities, who may not
(or not entirely) be competent and capable—of deciding whether he wanted
to take his 'medicine,' or refuse it.
None in the articles I've read about this case addresses Wrana's
competence (a legal term) or his capacity (as determined by a physician
or psychologist). If he was both competent and capable, he had the right
(a Constitutional right) to refuse to take his medication (or to undergo
any medical treatment).
It's impossible to infer, from what I've read, what the family's view of
Wrana's competency was. They're reported to have been shocked and amazed
by the actions of the SWAT team members but nowhere are they reported to
have said anything like, 'He didn't have to take his medicine if he
didn't want to.' It would appear that everyone involved assumed the he
could not have refused—objected, maybe, but not refused.
I seriously doubt that this was an assisted living facility; but even if
Wrana had been in some other sort of long term care facility, what
happened was uncalled for, barbaric, and surely illegal.
http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcam/ethics/refusal.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0497_0261_ZS.html
Just Google 'refusal of treatment' for more relevant sites.
I was a long term care ombudsman for the State of Oregon, for over three
years (I stopped because I needed some medical treatment myself.)
I visited one assisted living facility and one locked Alzheimer's
facility each week. I also visited two adult foster care homes once a month.
And I've refused certain medical treatments (in a hospital), as one may
do under Oregon law. The hospital didn't mind a bit.
Keep well.
Robert Paul
Family members are questioning the death of a 95-year-old WWII U.S. Air
Corps sergeant who killed by cops at an assisted living center last
month after resisting medical treatment.
I read several articles about this incident. The one above is typical.
Apparently he didn’t want to take his medication and when the nursing
staff insisted he got belligerent. The police were called and then a
swat team which tased and then shot him with a beanbag (it was the
beanbag injury that killed him) SWAT said he had a knife, but neither
the staff nor anyone not on the swat team saw a knife.
This guy needed a walker to get around and was seated in a chair when he
was tased and beanbagged. I’ll be 79 this year and suspect I could
have taken a steak knife (if he had one) away from the old man, but
maybe they were concerned about the more serious problem of his being
unwilling to take his medication. What is the penalty for that anyway?
I forget.
Lawrence
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