Case Summary
This case arises from a precipitous labor and delivery in the bathroom of a rural emergency department and the subsequent and indivisible interrogation by police and ER personnel that followed. The appellee, who was in high school at the time, indicates that she was completely unaware of her pregnancy when she went to the ER complaining of lower back pain after a long cheerleading practice and denied being pregnant. While the hospital conducted a pregnancy test, medical staff did not notify our client of her positive pregnancy result or alter their management of her presentation or pain in any way. Instead, unaware of her pregnancy and after having received several analgesics and morphine, the appellee went to the public bathroom and precipitously gave birth to what she reasonably understood to be a stillborn. She tried to clean up the bathroom and left the neonate in the bathroom trash bin. Hospital staff found the newborn soon after, but did not attempt resuscitation. The appellee had to be transported to a regional center to receive medical care and monitor blood loss.
Before she was transferred, however, and while she was still undergoing treatment for an obstetric emergency and significant bleeding, the charge nurse, treating physician, and a law enforcement officer, went into her room together. During this interaction, the physician informed the appellee that the hospital found a baby in the bathroom and went on to ask her a number of questions related to both her medical condition and her legal situation, all in the presence of law enforcement. Upon a motion to dismiss, the Court suppressed this interaction on the basis that ER staff and law enforcement became so enmeshed so as to compromise patient confidentiality, HIPAA, and our client's constitutional rights. The State has now appealed.
Our Brief
Our brief focuses on how allowing police in medical settings leads to worse public health outcomes, heightens the risk of physical harm to patients since police are there to investigate crimes and arrest people not keep people safe, and leads to rights and ethics violations.
ACLU-NM and Professor Ji Seon Song were on the brief with us. Pregnancy Justice is representing Ms. Trevizo in the case.