BROOKLYN'S KINGS COUNTY HOSPITAL SPANKED BY NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR BLOWING COURT-ORDERED BLOOD TEST AFTER ACCIDENT

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Brooklyn injury attorney)

On September 27, 2009 off-duty police officer Andrew Kelly drove his car into, and killed, pedestrian Vionique Valnord as she waited for a taxi in Brooklyn.

Claiming that killing Valnord was an accident, Kelly refused to take a Breathalyzer test. He was charged with DWI and vehicular homicide. It took Brooklyn prosecutors several hours to get a court order to force Kelly to give a blood sample.

It then took an hour to take Kelly from a Brooklyn precinct to Kings County Hospital. More time ticked by as doctors sought advice on how to proceed because Kelly refused to cooperate. By then, seven hours later, Kelly's blood-alcohol level was zero; he could rightly claim that Valnord's death was an "accident."

By November 7, 2009 New York State Department of Health investigators were looking into the Brooklyn hospital's failure to get the court-ordered blood sample on time. The hospital took the position that its doctors were not required to follow a court order to draw blood - say from an uncooperative arrested person - if it went against their feelings or beliefs.

New York State's Health Department pointed out that a hospital could be held in contempt of court for refusing to obey a court order to draw blood.

On November 9 2009, New York State's Health Department sanctioned Kings County Hospital for lacking a written policy "to ensure that court orders are carried out by medical staff in a timely manner so that evidence can be obtained."

A month later, New York City's Health and Hospital Corp. - the body overseeing Kings County Hospital - enacted such a policy for the first time.