A New York hospital failed to notify police when Giants receiver Plaxico Burress arrived there early Saturday morning with a gunshot wound to his thigh, despite a state law requiring a doctor or hospital to report such violence to the authorities “at once,” reports the New York Times. As a result, it took police detectives more than 13 hours to learn that Burress had been taken to the hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, after he accidentally shot himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub. The shooting occurred about 1:30 a.m. at the Latin Quarter, a Manhattan nightclub, and Burress arrived at the hospital at 2:04 a.m.
Hours later, when detectives heard news reports about the shooting, they began contacting hospitals. The detectives arrived at the hospital at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, after Burress had been discharged. A hospital administrator initially declined to give information to the detectives, citing federal privacy statutes. Police said a state law supercedes the federal statute. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has made stemming gun violence a priority, called for criminal charges against the hospital, which suspended the staff member responsible for failing to report the shooting.
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/sports/football/02hospital.html?hp