Protester claims ER abuse of disabled friend at Canadian hospital

From The Terrence Standard in Canada:

It's cold out, but Robert Crosby (pictured) is prepared to stay outside of the local hospital with the sign “ER doctor and nurse guilty of abuse.”

He's picketing Mills Memorial Hospital, he explains, because his friend Marvin Brown had blood removed for inspection without consent being given.

He said Brown, who is wheelchair bound, was held down by a doctor and nurse for the blood test even though he said he did not want them to. There had been difficulty getting the blood sample, and Brown had said he did not want to continue trying.

There's two issues of concern here, Crosby said: the violation of Brown's civil right to refuse care, and the hospital staff holding Brown down to do what they wanted is physical abuse.

“My friend has been declared legally competent by his own physician, and he has a right to say yes and a right to say no,” Crosby said, saying that Brown was exercising his right to refuse health care and that was disregarded.

“No means no, it doesn't mean maybe,” he said.

Crosby, a former nurse who has been taking care of Brown for the last six years, said that Brown has been having nightmares since the incident happened last October. He also said Brown has refused to go back to the hospital, choosing to travel to Prince George for service instead.

Crosby said if it had been a parent with a child, the situation wouldn't have happened.

“They would not have done that to a child,” he said. “So why would they do that to a disabled adult?”