Rectal Exam Lawsuit DENIED

[Andrew J Bowman]

Man loses lawsuit over rectal exam
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 | 6:23 AM

NEW YORK -- A hospital did nothing wrong when it tried to examine the rectum 
of a construction worker who had been hit on the head by a falling wooden 
beam, a jury found Monday.

After deliberating for about an hour, a state Supreme Court jury awarded 
nothing to Brian Persaud, who sued NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for 
unspecified damages. The panel found the hospital and its emergency room 
medical staff were not liable.

Persaud's lawyers, Gerard Marrone and Gary DeFilippo, said he might appeal.

"We're very disappointed," Marrone said after the two-week trial. "It's a 
miscarriage of justice."

The hospital's lawyer, Jeffrey Lawton, declined comment.

Marrone said Persaud, 38, was injured while working at a construction site 
in midtown Manhattan on May 20, 2003. Persaud received eight stitches for a 
cut over his eyebrow at the hospital, but denied emergency room staffers' 
request to examine his rectum, the lawyer said. He said doctors told Persaud 
the exam could help determine whether the accident caused spinal damage.

When Persaud resisted, staffers held him down while he begged, "Please don't 
do that," Marrone said. Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around, so the 
staffers gave him a powerful sedative and performed the rectal exam, he 
said.

Hospital witnesses testified at trial that the exam was never completed, but 
Marrone said that when Persaud woke up he was handcuffed to a bed and had an 
oxygen tube down his throat and lubricant in his rectum.

"He resisted because he didn't know what they were doing," DeFilippo said. 
"Once he said he didn't want the rectal exam, everything should have 
stopped."

DeFilippo said he believes the rectal exam was done as retaliation because 
his panicked client hit the doctor.

A judge dismissed a misdemeanor assault charge that was filed against 
Persaud because he hit the doctor.

DeFilippo said his client is unemployed and has been unable to hold a job 
since the accident.
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