Miami hospital kept woman from dying partner’s bedside
The gay marriage debate has earned a lot of headlines in the last year, but here’s a story in our own backyard that shows the kind of struggles people face when they have no legal claim to their partner.
The New York Times reports Janice Langbehn of Washington was unable to be by the bedside of her dying partner of 18 years, Lisa Pond. During a Florida vacation, Pond collapsed with an aneurysm and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital trauma center, where doctors refused to let Langbehn visit her. Pond died without seeing Langbehn or the couple’s three adopted children.
Gay rights groups, who say same-sex partners often are barred from hospital rooms because they aren’t “real family,” are watching the federal lawsuit in Florida, according to the New York Times.
See Miami hospital kept woman from dying partner’s bedside Vero Beach Press-Journal (subscription)
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Gay Rights: Lesbian Sues Hospital Over Denied Access To Dying Partner
As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman’s hospital room.
Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn would be allowed into Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. By then, she could only say her final farewell as a priest performed the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond.
Jackson staffers advised Langbehn that she could not see Pond earlier because the hospital’s visitation policy in cases of emergency was limited to immediate family and spouses — not partners. In Florida, same-sex marriages or partnerships are not recognized. On Friday, two years after her partner’s death, Langbehn and her attorneys were in federal court, claiming emotional distress and negligence in a suit they filed last June.
Jackson attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case on grounds that the hospital has no obligation to allow patients’ visitors.
Following a hearing lasting more than an hour Friday, U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan said he would try to decide soon whether the case could proceed to trial. He gave no specific date.
See Gay Rights: Lesbian Sues Hospital Over Denied Access To Dying Partner
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/gay-rights-le…
