An unspecified number of medical staff have been fired from a Minneapolis hospital after illicitly accessing George Floyd’s medical records.
The Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) sent a letter to Floyd’s family saying that Floyd’s records were accessed “multiple” times in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s privacy rules, Floyd family attorney Antonio Romanucci told KARE 11.
“There were multiple breaches by multiple people,” Romanucci said, citing the letter. HCMC told the family that the people responsible for the breaches “no longer work at the organization.”
Romanucci said that Floyd’s family believed the breaches were an attempt to malign Floyd’s character and that they are considering filing a lawsuit against Hennepin Healthcare.
“They feel it’s a continued assassination of George Floyd, his character. It’s a non-stop issue. And they were very upset, very disturbed, disappointed that even in death, that George Floyd’s character is being maligned by people that didn’t have any business looking at his private medical record,” Romanucci said.
In response to a question on the security breach, HCMC told The Associated Press that while the hospital does not comment on specific cases, it conducts routine audits of its medical records system and can see which employees accessed records and when to determine if they were authorized.
“Any breach of patient confidentiality is taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. If it is determined that a violation has occurred, disciplinary action up to and including termination can be used,” HCMC said in a statement.
Floyd died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Four officers were fired and charged with either second-degree murder or aiding and abetting second-degree murder over the incident.
Floyd’s autopsy revealed a potentially lethal mixture of fentanyl and methamphetamines in his system. Court documents released in August revealed that the Hennepin County chief medical examiner found that Floyd likely died of a drug overdose.
As The Daily Wire reported at the time:
New court documents have uncovered two memorandums, dated May 26 and June 1, that suggest Chief Hennepin County Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker concluded George Floyd likely died from a fentanyl overdose and found “no physical evidence suggesting” that he died of asphyxiation.
“AB (Andrew Baker) said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” says a memo dated June 1, outlining a May 31 virtual with Dr. Baker.
Independent medical examiners hired by Floyd’s family put responsibility for Floyd’s death squarely on the arresting officers, saying that Floyd died from “traumatic asphyxia due to the compression of his neck and back during restraint by police,” according to court records.
Early Gray, who is representing one of the ex-officers charged in the case, filed a motion on Aug. 17 arguing that Floyd had played a pivotal role in his own death, which could have been avoided had he not used drugs or had complied with officers’ directives from the outset.
“All he had to do is sit in the police car, like every other defendant who is initially arrested. While attempting to avoid his arrest, all by himself, Mr. Floyd overdosed on Fentanyl,” Gray wrote. “Given his intoxication level, breathing would have been difficult at best. Mr. Floyd’s intentional failure to obey commands, coupled with his overdosing, contributed to his own death.”