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Woman files suit in forced strip search
Her rights were violated at medical center, she says
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | June 6, 2006
A 50-year-old woman filed a federal lawsuit against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center yesterday, saying she was forcibly undressed by five male security guards there last year after she refused a nurse's order to take off her clothes.
The incident, which hospital officials have defended as necessary to make sure the woman was not hiding drugs or weapons, triggered flashbacks to childhood sexual abuse, according to the woman, Cassandra Sampson. She alleged in the suit that her civil rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act, because hospital officials made no effort to protect her from psychological damage.
Sampson said she went to the hospital for treatment of a severe migraine headache, but was moved to a psychiatric unit when she admitted struggling with self-destructive impulses. She said she pleaded to be allowed to keep at least her pants on before the strip search, but the nurse refused.
"Go ahead and rape me; everybody else has," Sampson said she cried out as the guards unbuckled her pants and removed them. ``They left me there with my underwear showing and my johnny up to my chest . . . I was crying, and [the nurse] said, `That's what you get for not listening to me.' "
In a letter to Sampson, hospital officials said they were sorry she had such a terrible experience, but stood by their strict policy of searching psychiatric patients for their own benefit. Yesterday, Beth Israel Deaconess officials declined to comment further, saying they can't talk about pending legal matters.
Susan Stefan, one of Sampson's lawyers, said that her client's strip search is an extreme form of what psychiatric patients face in many hospitals.
All emergency rooms face a risk that patients with serious psychiatric disorders could hurt themselves or others, but medical staff members differ on how far to go to make sure a patient isn't dangerous.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, like Beth Israel Deaconess, requires virtually all psychiatric patients to change into a hospital gown. ``There have been situations where a patient has been uncooperative, and then security is involved," said spokesman Kevin Myron. ``It's safer to err on the side of caution."
But Baystate Medical Center in Springfield dropped its mandatory undressing policy after a 2001 incident in which a psychiatric patient, Linda Stalker, was pinned by an orderly and undressed to her underwear. ``My sense of safety has been shattered," Stalker wrote to the hospital afterward.
A spokeswoman at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester said the hospital never asks psychiatric patients to undress on arrival. If they suspect the patient may be dangerous, security guards perform a clothed pat-down search.
Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis led a successful effort to stop strip searches of psychiatric patients at Salem Hospital in Oregon in 2003. ``We can't be hauling people in here and be doing more harm to them," she said. ``It's very clear that a strip search retraumatizes them."
Sampson hadn't intended to go to Beth Israel's emergency room on March 25, 2005, according to the lawsuit. But it was a weekend, and her primary care physician said the ER would be the best place to get help for severe migraine headaches that had persisted for three days.
However, as soon as Sampson told a nurse that she took psychiatric medications and that she had been battling impulses to hurt herself that week, the nurse said she would need a psychiatric evaluation.
Nurse Heather A. Richter then told Sampson that she would need to completely undress, according to the lawsuit. Sampson said that during previous emergency visits, Beth Israel officials had allowed her to keep her pants on, but Richter insisted the pants be removed, according to he lawsuit.
``I got scared and tried to run out of the room, and security chased me," recalled Sampson. ``I said, `No one is going to strip me like that.' The guard said if I don't go back, they'll drag me back."
Sampson protested her treatment to Beth Israel officials, but the hospital stood by its policy of requiring all psychiatric patients to undress to their underpants.
Stefan -- a lawyer at the Center for Public Representation, a nonprofit agency -- said such a blanket policy is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that public institutions make reasonable accommodations for disabled people like Sampson.
The lawsuit was filed with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a national advocacy law firm, and the private law firm of Campbell, Campbell, Edwards, and Conroy.
The suit seeks more than $1 million in damages, along with a change in hospital policy so that patients are searched only if a psychiatrist agrees that they pose an immediate safety risk.
Her rights were violated at medical center, she says
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | June 6, 2006
A 50-year-old woman filed a federal lawsuit against Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center yesterday, saying she was forcibly undressed by five male security guards there last year after she refused a nurse's order to take off her clothes.
The incident, which hospital officials have defended as necessary to make sure the woman was not hiding drugs or weapons, triggered flashbacks to childhood sexual abuse, according to the woman, Cassandra Sampson. She alleged in the suit that her civil rights were violated under the Americans with Disabilities Act, because hospital officials made no effort to protect her from psychological damage.
Sampson said she went to the hospital for treatment of a severe migraine headache, but was moved to a psychiatric unit when she admitted struggling with self-destructive impulses. She said she pleaded to be allowed to keep at least her pants on before the strip search, but the nurse refused.
"Go ahead and rape me; everybody else has," Sampson said she cried out as the guards unbuckled her pants and removed them. ``They left me there with my underwear showing and my johnny up to my chest . . . I was crying, and [the nurse] said, `That's what you get for not listening to me.' "
In a letter to Sampson, hospital officials said they were sorry she had such a terrible experience, but stood by their strict policy of searching psychiatric patients for their own benefit. Yesterday, Beth Israel Deaconess officials declined to comment further, saying they can't talk about pending legal matters.
Susan Stefan, one of Sampson's lawyers, said that her client's strip search is an extreme form of what psychiatric patients face in many hospitals.
All emergency rooms face a risk that patients with serious psychiatric disorders could hurt themselves or others, but medical staff members differ on how far to go to make sure a patient isn't dangerous.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, like Beth Israel Deaconess, requires virtually all psychiatric patients to change into a hospital gown. ``There have been situations where a patient has been uncooperative, and then security is involved," said spokesman Kevin Myron. ``It's safer to err on the side of caution."
But Baystate Medical Center in Springfield dropped its mandatory undressing policy after a 2001 incident in which a psychiatric patient, Linda Stalker, was pinned by an orderly and undressed to her underwear. ``My sense of safety has been shattered," Stalker wrote to the hospital afterward.
A spokeswoman at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester said the hospital never asks psychiatric patients to undress on arrival. If they suspect the patient may be dangerous, security guards perform a clothed pat-down search.
Dr. Maggie Bennington-Davis led a successful effort to stop strip searches of psychiatric patients at Salem Hospital in Oregon in 2003. ``We can't be hauling people in here and be doing more harm to them," she said. ``It's very clear that a strip search retraumatizes them."
Sampson hadn't intended to go to Beth Israel's emergency room on March 25, 2005, according to the lawsuit. But it was a weekend, and her primary care physician said the ER would be the best place to get help for severe migraine headaches that had persisted for three days.
However, as soon as Sampson told a nurse that she took psychiatric medications and that she had been battling impulses to hurt herself that week, the nurse said she would need a psychiatric evaluation.
Nurse Heather A. Richter then told Sampson that she would need to completely undress, according to the lawsuit. Sampson said that during previous emergency visits, Beth Israel officials had allowed her to keep her pants on, but Richter insisted the pants be removed, according to he lawsuit.
``I got scared and tried to run out of the room, and security chased me," recalled Sampson. ``I said, `No one is going to strip me like that.' The guard said if I don't go back, they'll drag me back."
Sampson protested her treatment to Beth Israel officials, but the hospital stood by its policy of requiring all psychiatric patients to undress to their underpants.
Stefan -- a lawyer at the Center for Public Representation, a nonprofit agency -- said such a blanket policy is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that public institutions make reasonable accommodations for disabled people like Sampson.
The lawsuit was filed with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a national advocacy law firm, and the private law firm of Campbell, Campbell, Edwards, and Conroy.
The suit seeks more than $1 million in damages, along with a change in hospital policy so that patients are searched only if a psychiatrist agrees that they pose an immediate safety risk.
