BGH moves for dismissal of lawsuit

SANDPOINT — Bonner General Hospital is asking a district judge to flush a malpractice lawsuit filed by a Bonner County man who claims he was imprisoned and subjected to unnecessary medical tests after seeking treatment for constipation.

Counsel for the hospital is moving for summary judgment in Gary Alan Schulte’s negligence case because BGH staff applied standard health care practices and Schulte consented to the treatments.

A hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion is set for April 19 in 1st District Court. If the court grants summary judgment, the case will be dismissed without a trial.

Schulte, 67, sued the hospital in 2009 after he presented himself to the hospital’s emergency room complaining of abdominal pain and pressure. Doctors determined he had an obstructed bowel, according to court records.

Schulte alleged in his suit that he underwent medical tests he did not agree to and was held overnight against his will.

Schulte described himself as a “prisoner” and the hospital as a “prison” in his civil complaint. His suit targeted the hospital, in addition to staff, administrators and contractors, although some have since been dismissed as defendants.

Schulte’s suit seeks $1 million in punitive damages, $7,000 in general damages and the imprisonment of the doctors who he claimed had “kidnapped” him.

Hospital officials denied that Schulte was ever held against his will and point out that he signed a treatment consent form which outlined the conditions of his admission, court documents said.

Schulte is acting as his own counsel in the suit and his filings bear some of the telltale language and punctuation utilized by adherents of the sovereign citizen movement.