This has to stop! :angryfire2: No one should have to die alone.
Kept From a Dying Partners Bedside
This couple did everything right to prevent this from happening and in the end they still got screwed. :angryfire2: :irked:
Kept From a Dying Partners Bedside
When a loved one is in the hospital, you naturally want to be at the bedside. But what if the staff wont allow it?
What if you are estranged from your family and the thought of having your butthead brother or bi-polar mom crying over you as you take your last breaths is enough to make you want to die?Thats what Janice Langbehn, a social worker in Lacey, Wash., says she experienced when her partner of 18 years, Lisa Ponds, collapsed with an aneurysm during a Florida vacation and was taken to a Miami trauma center. She died there, at age 39, as Ms. Langbehn tried in vain to persuade hospital officials to let her visit, along with the couples adopted children. I have this deep sense of failure for not being at Lisas bedside when she died, Ms. Langbehn said. How I get over that I dont know, or if I ever do.The case, now the subject of a federal lawsuit in Florida, is being watched by gay rights groups, which say same-sex partners often report being excluded from a patients room because they arent real family members. And lawyers say the case could affect the way hospitals treat all patients with nonmarital relationships, including older people who choose not to marry, unmarried heterosexual couples and single people who rely on the support of close friends rather than relatives. One point of contention in the lawsuit is whether a hospital has a legal duty to its patients to always give visiting rights to their designated family members and surrogates.
What happens if the trauma staff are homophobic regardless of the law or creating living wills, advanced directives and power-of-attorney documentsRobert Alonso, a spokesman for the public trust that runs the Miami hospital, Jackson Memorial, said it typically did not comment on pending litigation, but added that the hospital grants visitation if it doesnt interfere with other emergency care. The primary legal point is that the amount of visitation allowed in a trauma emergency room should be decided by the surgeons and nurses treating the patients, he said.
I don't understand why these legal documents were ignored!In both cases, the couples had prepared for a medical emergency, creating living wills, advanced directives and power-of-attorney documents.