OT: The Jason Pierre Paul saga

Submitted by 1464 on

This is probably old news for many on the boards, as it has been circulating since the weekend.  On the 4th, it seems that Jason Pierre Paul was injured by a firework and received burns on his hands.  Yesterday, a cell phone picture of his medical record was leaked on twitter which showed that he was having a surgery to amputate his right index finger.  It’s being reported that a hospital employee took the image and sent it to a friend, who posted it on twitter.  Because of this whole episode, the Giants rescinded a $60 million offer that they had given JPP.

So, since HIPAA (please don’t comment below saying HIPPA) law was clearly violated, I’m very interested in continuing to follow this.  I work quite a bit with HIPAA law, and it’s just nauseating that a hospital employee could be that stupid and cavalier with medical data.  He may end up in jail, and he deserves to.  As for the hospital, HIPAA fines from the OCR have been in the multi-million dollar range.  That is typically due to a high volume data breach.  I’m curious to find if a civil suit could come up to that range based off of one person losing several million dollars in contract money.

Let me stop any arguments to the contrary before they are started.  Even if JPP has an agreement in place with the NFL and waives his HIPAA rights, the nature of the data breach means that HIPAA law was broken.  This wasn’t the NFL releasing the data, it was some slack jawed nurse, or IT guy, or facilities person. 

ON TOP OF ALL THAT – JPP may face criminal charges because fireworks are illegal in Florida.  The convolution runs deep in this story.

TLDR – Jason Pierre Paul blew off his finger with firework.  He may face criminal charges, but only because a hospital employee broke the law first and released his medical issue.  The Giants said “We good” and rescinded his offer.  Now there is HIPAA blowback on ESPN and the hospital for letting this come to light.  It’s only appropriate that this happened in Florida.

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/7/8/8917289/jason-pierre-paul-fireworks-injury-finger-giants-contract

MGJS SuperKick Party

July 9th, 2015 at 7:35 AM ^

There was the corner from Tampa Bay who lost a finger (cue all the Corners can't catch jokes) from fireworks too.

I mean, I've never had a big booming firework, but I've also never been tempted to go get ones that could easily kill me

MayOhioEatTurds

July 9th, 2015 at 12:09 PM ^

July 8, back when I was 12 years old.  I was helping out at an Eagle Scout project, we were cleaning up an underserviced park, and I found the M-80 under a large cement slab. 

I incorrectly assumed it was a smoke bomb.   

Bad mistake. 

The pain from this sort of injury, when your fingers get peeled like bananas, and finger bones stick out like a Halloween model, is difficult to describe.  The pain was so intense I wished for death.  Nothing has ever really hurt since.  The doctors pointed out that a blast injury of the hand is about as bad as pain gets, since (1) nerve concentration is higher in fingerpads than almost anywhere else, and (2) blast injuries tear nerves ragged, instead of slicing cleanly.

I was lucky:  St. Joeseph's had a world-renowned hand surgeon who was visiting that week.  He was able to save all my fingerpads, and only amputated 3/4" of my right thumb.  My eye made a full recovery.  After therapy, I was told that St. Joe's sees 5 or 6 cases of M-80 ignition in hand every year, and my year everyone else lost multiple digits and/or eyes.  So I was very fortunate. 

Jason will learn.  Lighting a firework like that in your hand is a mistake you only make one time. 

SAMgO

July 9th, 2015 at 7:38 AM ^

Sidenote, how many of you saw the photo of his hand post accident on liveleak? Absolutely brutal. It looked like a couple of his fingers had essentially all skin and muscle blown off of them. Pure bone.

johnvand

July 9th, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^

Some people are just not good at assessing risk, or perhaps have that "invincible" feeling.  It's like the millionaires who get drunk and drive home when they could easily afford a driver for the evening.

If JPP wanted to see things go boom so badly, he could have easily hired some professionals to do it.  Instead he did this, and is going to lose Millions in the process.  Rightly so.

quigley.blue

July 9th, 2015 at 7:40 AM ^

To play devil's advocate, and set aside all of the medical records stuff for a second.  If JPP did something he wasn't supposed to and hurt himself, the GIants absolutely have something in his contract to deal with that, so it doesn't really seem like this is an issue for them.  They would have found out about the finger eventually, and just like Jeff Kent, he would be in doodoo.

Baxter

July 9th, 2015 at 7:41 AM ^

No rational person is going to believe that the leaked info caused him to lose the $60 million. That contract was gone as soon as JPP made the ridiculously stupid decision to fire off an explosive device from his hand.

The Giants' team doctors would have examined him before any deal, regardless.

As for HIPAA, there are actual provisions in the law against civil suits; the penalties come in the form of CMS fines instead. The hospital will be protected from suits as long as they required the at fault employee to complete privacy training.

As for the person who took the picture? He should be tarred and feathered for general lack of decency or common sense.




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Mattinboots

July 9th, 2015 at 7:42 AM ^

Layperson opinion, but nurse or whomever definitely violated HIPAA. Espn though is tricky. The article I saw didn't have the image posted, but just "sources told Adam Schefter" etc. Schefter, however, retweeted the image the nurse or whomever released. That's probably a big issue for Schefter. But espn probably staves off a lawsuit here as they didn't seek to obtain hospital recommends and then post them. They just reported the news (espn as sports tmz jokes aside).




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MGoBrewMom

July 9th, 2015 at 9:54 AM ^

as you do, but I do work in healthcare and understand the spirit of HIPPA. If I had an ounce of respect for Adam Schefter, it left after finally reading an article last night. What a cluster, all the way around. I'm not sure I feel bad for JPP, I might, because clearly his basic privacy rights were grossly violated. So, for that, yeah. But I just will never get grown people lighting explosives.

Side note--I remember being a kid (9-10 y.o.) and my step dad and brothers taking us all out a dirt road to light cherry bombs. It would explode and I'd be waiting for something more...they were all so excited, and I never got it then either.

Lou MacAdoo

July 9th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^

Yeah it felt dirty watching him report that. He looked like a conniving weasel. As soon as I saw that picture I knew some peice of shit working at the hospital took it. I think he crossed the line and should've known better. Agreed, definitely busch league.

turtleboy

July 9th, 2015 at 9:13 AM ^

Hey, to be fair the Chinese forced laborers making them probably don't have all their fingers either. What do you expect from a bunch of elementary school kids?
Seriously, though. I remember a story where a Chinese elementary school exploded killing everyone inside (because it was a freaking huge explosion) and the Chinese government story to the AP was that a"crazy man ran inside the building with fireworks in his pockets" and set them off. Yeah right..

jblaze

July 9th, 2015 at 7:58 AM ^

JPP is an idiot who blew his finger up doing an illegal activity and now he should be compensated because a picture of his dumb actions was released?



How is this any different than say Minick's BAC being released? Or the Ray Rice details? Just because JPP was in a hospital?

Everyone Murders

July 9th, 2015 at 8:58 AM ^

So let's say you or a loved one contracts HIV (sexually, transfusion, bad monkey meat - however).  You're cool with the hospital releasing that information to the public at large?  Really?

Because if you're not, that's the sort of disclosure HIPAA protects against.