This blog serves to update an earlier posting (July 23) in which a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died after being stunned by a Taser in a Cincinnati hospital was discussed.

That incident seems ever more topical following the recent report concerning the nephew of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Derek Thomas was admitted to a Louisiana hospital last month after an alleged suicide attempt. While trying to leave the hospital, a security guard shocked him with a Taser. Thomas is epileptic and suffered a seizure.

The use of Tasers in hospital settings is becoming increasingly controversial. A Washington Post article recently reported that, while most commonly confined to more traditional police settings, the use of Tasers in health-care settings is growing. The newspaper states that 151 hospitals across the country now have security teams with Taser weapons.

Some experts support that. Others emphatically do not. An influential paper written last year by Dr. Jeffrey Ho, an emergency room doctor at the University of Minnesota hospital, supports Taser use in hospital settings. Ho maintains that stun gun use can defuse violent situations and prevent injuries.

University of Iowa professor Robert Philibert, who teaches psychiatry and neuroscience, disagrees with Taser use in health-care settings in all but the most extreme circumstances. He calls the increased use of Tasers in hospitals "an extremely troubling trend" and would limit their employment to situations where there was an imminent chance of death or severe injury.

Amnesty International states that 334 deaths can be attributed to Taser use in the U.S. between 2001 and August 2008. The organization calls for police departments to stop using the stun guns or limit them to only life-threatening situations.

Related Resource: www.aboutlawsuits.com "Hospital Taser Stun Gun Use Has Raised Concerns: Report" August 4, 2010