Hennepin Healthcare has been named in a lawsuit by a Minneapolis woman that alleges that paramedics violated her civil rights. The lawsuit claims that the woman was injected with ketamine last year by paramedics, against her will, and then enrolled in a clinical trial.
Brittany Buckley’s lawsuit alleges medical malpractice, excessive force and negligence. She reportedly suffered from heart complications and difficulty breathing.
Additional reports of malpractice and similar claims have surfaced against the hospital, causing the hospital to halt the drug trial. Representatives for the hospital claim that they cannot comment further on any incidents due to pending litigation.
“Communication breakdowns among providers, between patient or family and healthcare professionals, and involving technology, including the Internet, e-mail, telephone, and telemedicine can lead to the failure of critical information getting relayed, resulting in medical errors,” explains Bradshaw Law LLC.
Buckley reportedly relapsed on wine at her apartment, fell asleep on the couch and a concerned friend called 911 to perform a wellness check. The police arrived, along with paramedics, and after a brief discussion, it was determined that Buckley should visit the hospital. She was struggling on the anniversary of her father’s death.
She was strapped to a gurney and forced to go to the hospital by emergency responders. She did not resist but cried and complained. Reports from paramedics suggest that she was violent, kicking, head-butting and biting responders.
This is when, according to Buckley’s account, that the paramedics decided to administer ketamine to the woman. The drug, a powerful sedative, was under trial by the hospital at the time as an alternative to Versed. Buckley claims that she asked the paramedics not to sedate her, but against her will, they still gave her the shot.
She claims shortly after the shot was administered, she struggled to breathe and had to have a ventilating device in the ambulance to breathe. She also had her heart rate elevated to abnormally high levels.
She woke up in the hospital a day later, tubes in her throat and a document claiming that she had been entered into the ketamine trials. She does not remember the entire incident, but she was able to obtain video footage from body cameras worn by the officers that arrived at the apartment.
A formal response from the hospital claims that all processes were properly filed to the best of the hospital’s ability.
Buckley claims that, even by the hospital’s own “agitation” scale, she would not have been agitated enough to have the shot administered to her.