UHS Allegedly Bungled Case

Those close to one of the two recent victims of date-rape drug poisoning say that University Health Services (UHS) bungled the student’s treatment.

The victim’s roommate said that emergency medical technicians called the night of the drugging and the UHS nurse who saw the student the next day failed to recognize the case as one of drug poisoning.

The drugging is one of two mentioned in an e-mail the College sent out Monday warning that students had been treated for unknowingly consuming Rohypnol or related substances at off-campus parties in the past two weeks.

According to the roommate, the student’s friends called university police after the student returned from a party acting extremely intoxicated.

But they said EMTs dismissed the student’s behavior as the result of excessive drinking and gave the student a medical waver form to sign.

“We got [the student] up here and [the student] couldn’t even sit on the floor,” the roommate said. “We thought that [the student] was drunk and we’d just never seen anyone that bad before.”

The roommate said that friends took the student to UHS the afternoon following the party, after a Google search revealed that the student’s symptoms matched those of Rohypnol poisoning perfectly.

The roommate described the UHS nurse whom they met with as ignorant of the date-rape drug and initially unresponsive to the friends’ descriptions of the student’s symptoms.

According to the roommate, the nurse at first told the friends and victim that no test existed that could detect Rohypnol six to eight hours after ingestion and only changed her answer when presented with the results of the friends’ research. Tests eventually confirmed that Rohypnol, a sedative that can cause unconsciousness and amnesia, was in the victim’s system.

Director of University Health Services David S. Rosenthal said he could not comment on specific cases, but said that the service’s after-hours urgent care specialists are fully qualified to deal with Rohypnol poisoning.

“There’s no question that the doctors and nurses at [UHS] know full well about drugs and drug addiction,” Rosenthal said.

According to Rosenthal, a toxicology screening could detect Rohypnol in urine up to 12 hours after ingestion.

Susan B. Marine, director of the Office for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response, said that though she did not want to discount the criticisms, she was surprised because she has had an “overwhelmingly positive” experience in discussing the recent date rape drug problem with UHS.

“I’ve found them to be very knowledgeable about these drugs, what they are and what the symptomology is,” Marine said. “I’ve had several conversations with UHS staff in the past few days and they’ve all been completely aware and cognizant of that problem.”

Marine said that any UHS staff who are not familiar with date rape drugs should be trained.

According to Marine, toxicology screens range in their comprehensiveness, some testing for 10 to 12 substances, others for as many as 150. Marine said Harvard should examine the frequency with which it recommends the more wide-reaching test.

“It’s purely a matter of logistics: what are we doing now and what do we need to be doing,” she said.

Rosenthal said intoxicated students are routinely subjected to toxicology tests, but that of the one to three such tests administered every week, the vast majority only test for alcohol.

“There is a drug or a toxic screen that is part of the routine procedures, [but] there are many things the screen will not pick up unless specifically asked for,” Rosenthal said. He did not provide specific statistics on the frequency of tests for Rohypnol or similar drugs.

Rosenthal said that UHS does not conduct such tests on site but that results can be back from an outside lab within hours—even late at night if they “felt it was urgent.”

Rosenthal said he has not received an official complaint regarding UHS’ care in the recent incidents, and urged the student or a representative to come forward if they feel that UHS mishandled the case.

“If this is a complaint, or if there’s any concern about the health care that someone received at UHS, the individual or a legal representative of that individual should alert me to it so I can do a full peer review of the issue,” he said. “We would obviously be concerned about that and would take action. But I can’t take action on second-hand or third-hand information.”

Rosenthal encouraged students to seek one of several avenues of confidential complaint, including the UHS patient advocate or the Student Health Advisory Council.

—Staff writer David B. Rochelson can be reached at rochels@fas.harvard.edu.