A construction worker claimed in a lawsuit that when he went to a hospital after being hit on the head by a falling wood beam, emergency room staffers forcibly gave him a rectal examination.


Brian Persaud, 38, says in court papers that after he denied a request by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital emergency room employees to examine his rectum, he was "assaulted, battered and falsely imprisoned."


His lawyer, Gerrard Marrone, said he and Persaud later learned the exam was one way of determining whether he had suffered spinal damage in the accident.


Marrone said his client got eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow.


Then, Marrone said, emergency room staffers insisted on examining his rectum and held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that!"


He said Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around and staffers gave him an injection, which knocked him out, and then performed the rectal exam.


Persaud woke up handcuffed to a bed and with an oxygen tube down his throat, the lawyer said, and spent three days in a detention centre.


A request by the hospital to dismiss Persaud's lawsuit was denied by Justice Alice Schlesinger, who ordered a trial to start March 31.


Hospital spokesman Bryan Dotson said the hospital believes the suit is completely without merit and intends to contest it.


A judge dismissed a misdemeanour assault charge against Persaud.



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