Police get involved after patient refuses to give urine sample

Published 2:09 pm Thursday, June 9, 2011

A 40-year-old Port Orchard man at Harrison Medical Center May 27 refused to give a urine sample, leading into a physical struggle between the patient and nurse, which led to a call to police.

After not urinating the previous night, the man’s nurse was directed by his doctor to obtain a urine sample. The man said he did not have to urinate at 9:30 a.m. The nurse and two hospital security personnel put the man in soft restraints in order to insert a catheter to receive a urine sample. The man struggled against them and broke one soft restraint. He also knocked the glasses off of the nurse’s face and scratched his face. In resisting from being placed into full restraints, the man grabbed the nurse’s left pectoral muscle, pinching him.

Police arrived at 9:46 a.m. and when asked about his interaction with the nurse, he was unresponsive at first and them mumbled, “I didn’t have to pee.”

The case was forwarded to the county prosecutor’s office with a recommendation that the 40-year-old be charged with two counts of third-degree assault.