Salt Lake Nurse Arrested Over Blood Draw

Salt Lake City, UT – A viral video shows a Salt Lake City detective arresting a nurse for blocking a blood draw, leaving people looking for answers.

The police department is conducting an internal investigation and cannot release any conclusions until the investigation in complete.

This is an opinion based on limited information and the final investigation may yield a different conclusion.

The Incident

The incident started on July 26 at around 2 PM when a Utah Highway Patrol officer was in pursuit of a pickup truck on ST 89/91 near Sardine Canyon, according to Salt Lake Tribune.

While fleeing, the pickup truck crashed into a semi-truck head-on, causing an explosion.

The pickup driver, Marcos Torres, 26, died on scene. The semi driver, William Gray, exited his vehicle while he was on fire. He was transported to University Hospital in Salt Lake City for treatment.

The Blood Draw

Any time there is a collision resulting in death, it’s normal to determine if anybody involved was impaired. Because Gray was transported to Salt Lake City, Logan police officers on scene asked Salt Lake police to obtain a blood sample from Gray.

Salt Lake Detective Jeff Payne, a trained phlebotomist, responded to obtain a blood sample from Gray, but Gray was unconscious.

Nurse Alex Wubbels told Payne that an agreement between the hospital and police department does not allow for a warrantless blood draw without patient consent or without the patient being under arrest.

Detective Payne consulted with the watch commander, Lt. James Tracy.  Tracy told him to arrest Wubbels for interfering with the investigation if she didn’t allow him to draw blood from Gray.

Wubbels went over the policy with the detective again, and Detective Payne arrested Wubbels. Bodycam video of the incident shows the arrest.

Wubbels was later released without charges and the police department has launched an internal investigation.

Here is the exclusive video interview with Alex Wubbels RN. Alex is n Head nurse and  American  former Alpine skier who competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Salt Lake City mayor, police chief respond to “unacceptable” nurse arrest video

The mayor and police chief apologized.

“Like many of you, I watched the video of police officers interacting with University of Utah Medical Center nurse Alex Wubbels for the first time through the media late yesterday,” Mayor Biskupski said in a statement. “What I saw is completely unacceptable to the values of my Administration and of the values of the Salt Lake City Police Department. I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbels for what she has been through for simply doing her job.”

We rarely report news from out of the area. This incident is affecting many nurses and law enforcement in our area. Let’s not paint a broad brush but at least have a conversation on how to prevent this in the future.

Cyndi Lenz RN, Editor Treasurecoast.com