That's very odd. I've recently read something about doctors recommending unneeded tests. In order to make money I supose. I'll try and find a link.

Speculum--->Butt?

He should consider himself lucky. I usually have to pay $200 under the table to get the doctor to do one of those.

The frightening thing isn't that they wanted to give him a test that appeared unrelated to the injury, but that they drugged him in order to perform it and then restrained him afterwards. It's so wildly out there that it strains credulousness in my view.

I have bumped my head good and hard many a time, but have never had anyone try to do anything but fix the gaping wounds on the aforementioned melon.

Sounds like he entered the hospital with Martin Riggs. Perhaps he was annoying and had it coming?

Last time I checked, people have the right to refuse medical procedures. The man was obviously conscious and able to make decisions at the time, therefore until the hospital managed to get his consent, putting anything up his bunghole is assault at the best. Add that he was drugged & restrained, I'd say rape could easily be on the table, even if the purpose was to assess a possible medical condition. No means No...

Makes me wonder if there were over eager interns involved...

I thought the entire reasoning behind AMA forms was to shield hospitals from litigation. I don't think any lawyer would take the case if the AMA was signed and the deposed doctor says that the patient made a conscious choice to sign the papers and leave. I'm with RedJen on this. If a patient can sign a DNR, then s/he can certainly refuse a very invasive and uncomfortable proceedure. The fact that it came to blows further illistrates just how out of hand the situation was. Rape may not hold up in court due to the lack of sexual intent, but you could probably nail them with some (frankly outdated) sodomy laws. Plus, since its a civil suit, and given the sevarity of the act, he might get triple punitive damages if he doesn't settle. That means major bucks.

I'm not a lawyer, I only work for them, and I brought this up with one and she gave me most of that legal info (jargon).

Things signed while mentally impaired (concussion) can later be contested, and might not stand up in court. AMA does not guarantee protection.

Slate explains patient rights. From the original article, I don't think the doctors had the right to do what they did, but I also think the whole thing could have been avoided if they had explained the need for the test. If he was lucid and didn't appear to have any sort of mental deficiency, the doctors definitely overstepped their bounds.

I think the best part of the story is how he refused the rectal exam in the first place. Did the doctor have freakishly big hands? Did he hear that if someone puts something up your butt, that makes you gay?

It's a normal part of an examination. My dentist gives me one every six months.

What?...

Mine was during my first month in Taiwan. Folks were smoking cigarettes in the hallway. The air conditioning was busted in the recovery room I shared with 15 other post-operatives and the swarm of mosquitoes went from patient to patient. The woman next to me had some flavor of abdominal injury and kept moaning "hao tong-o" ("omfg I hurt like a mf") despite the fact that it didn't seem to have any appreciable effect on the timely response from nursing staff. Oh, and I was dosed so heavily by the anesthesiologist that I didn't wake up for four days.

I can guarantee that if I come into the ER to get my head stitched up and the doctors want to rectally probe me without explaining the reason behind the test punches will be thrown. As far as I'm concerned what they did to this guy is no better than a frat boy with a bag of roofies at a bar. Drugs + lack of consent + something up the butt = rape.

It's that simple. Doctors fear of litigation be damned.

EDIT: Never mind. Not worth it.

For some reason I'm reminded of this Family Guy episode (slightly NSFW).