As the Supreme Court considers the same-sex marriage cases in Hollingsworth and Windsor, the arrest of Roger Gorley could serve as an answer to justices like Chief Justice John Roberts who asked pointedly what the rush was for an answer on the issue. Gorley was arrested at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City after he refused to leave the side of his partner. While he had power of attorney and the right to make medical decisions, family members did not want him in the room. Because he was not viewed as a “spouse” and therefore a family member, he was told to leave.
Gorley is now the subject of a restraining order to prevent further visitation.
Gorley said the nurse refused to confirm the couple’s shared power of attorney and medical decision form.
“She didn’t even bother to look it up, to check in to it,” the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.
The hospital insists “when anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance.”
I do not know how Gorley acted, but the confrontation occurred after he was told to leave. If they were recognized as spouses, such an order would be highly unlikely. Clearly, the hospital can expel anyone who is causing a disruption, including all family members. The absence of marital status however places people like Gorley at a disadvantage in disagreements with other family members over visitation.
Source: Rawstory
I can vouch for the clear the room please statement. Many years ago my 10 year old daughter fell off her bike and while her helmet saved her from serious harm, she did tear the inside of her lip when she hit the pavement. At the ER, the Doctor asked me to leave while he sowed her up and I asked if I could stay (feeling somewhat responsible since I had asked her to ride with me). The Doctor said ok with hesitation, then grabbed a stool and ordered me to sit. I said I’m fine and he said when he starts sowing he feared I’d pass out seeing my daughter being sown up. He told me to either sit or leave. So yes indeed, Doctors in an ER are pretty adamant that disruptions in the ER are not to be allowed, no matter what the relationship with the patient.
Perhaps in the heat of the moment when the family first asked him to leave, he became belligerent and rather than take time to “check the papers”, the immediate family was allowed to stay while the belligerent person was asked to leave. He brought this on to himself by how he acted.
mfitch,
“So what are the facts here? Was Gorley the only one who was asked to leave?”
Good question.
Otteray,
The credible reports you speak of–did they all come from the same source…the hospital’s Facebook page?
When the patient wakes up and gets his senses, he will have to disavow his family. It is called: Family Divorce, or sometimes Sibling Divorce. Make out a notarized statement of your name, date of birth, mom, dad, bro, sis, kids, aunts, uncles, and state that they are to have no significance in your health care decisiions, are not allowed in your presence, or waiting room absent your personal permission. Then you appoint your designated driver. Post it on your chest when you arrive at the ER. Publish it in the county newspaper.
This obviates as well the need for Thanksgiving at Aunt DoeDoes, Christmas at Jimbobs, Easter at JoeBobs, Halloween at WeenerDogs.
When you wake up: Give em Hell Harry.
Put the taxpayer’s at ease. It’s an office party.
“While he had power of attorney and the right to make medical decisions, family members did not want him in the room.”
While I’m not an Emergency Room Physician, through the years I’ve been an Emergency Room patient, in life threatening condition perhaps 25 times at “E” rooms in many different hospitals. While I’m grateful too many of the ER’s there exists a certain peremptoriness with many ER staff when it comes to relatives. In my own case, being a heart transplant candidate and survivor, were it not for the watchful eyes of my wife and tireless caregiver’s interjections the normal ER protocols might have caused me more harm the good. This is because my category of patient is not seen by many of the best ER’s and the manner of treatment is different due to my immunology-suppressed state. In one instance when I was suffering from lung difficulty that had resulted from my transplant, my wife had to inform the staff who had curiously crowded the room because of my unique status, that they needed to be wearing masks to be near me. This was greeted by a general annoyance but her strong insistence gave way to grudging compliance.
While I have the utmost respect for “E” Room personnel, I relate the story above to illustrate that it is often quite important to have ones’ spouse with you in moments of medical danger. I the transplant world they are referred to as caregivers and considered to be essentially important to the patient’s health and safety. Indeed, though I have always been a proponent of Gay Rights, initially I thought the issue of Gay Marriage to be of a lesser importance. However, with the plethora of stories of “Gay Spouses” denied hospital privileges, especially during the AIDS era, I realized that recognizing the spousal rights of Gay lovers is an essential right.
I’m struck by the above line from JT’s article and despite OS’s clarification, I wonder how much family hostility played a role in the ER Staff’s position? I suspect it did, but will be ope to changing my opinion if I could see further clarifying sources of the story. Until then I will look at this story as an example of the same old treatment give to the Gay spouse.
“when he got there, a member of Allen’s family asked him to leave, according to Kansas City Fox station WDAF. When Gorley refused, hospital security allegedly handcuffed him and forcefully removed him from the premises.”
So what are the facts here? Was Gorley the only one who was asked to leave? Is it true that it was the family member who initiated the request for Gorley to leave? If so, would Gorley have standing to sue the family member? To sue the hospital? If Gorley had not been disruptive until being asked to leave, then the disruptive behavior can’t be used to justify the hospital’s actions.
Elaine,
From all the (now updated) credible reports I have seen, Mr. Gorley became belligerent when asked to leave. That is a term I am most familiar with. “Belligerent” is a polite way of saying he probably became combative.
As I wrote above, it is not unusual for ER staff to want the room cleared. The reason can vary from the visitor being in the way of the treatment team to one of sterile field. As I mentioned earlier, when my daughter coded after delivering my granddaughter they ordered everyone out of the room except the treatment team. Her husband, mother–everyone. That was despite the fact my wife was Head Nurse of the Oncology Department and I was on the staff of the hospital.
From all I can gather, the problem was not one of being gay, or having a gay relationship. It was the problem of a visitor with a serious attitude problem getting in the way of ER staff while they were trying to treat him.
Just found this:
Gay Man Arrested At Missouri Hospital For Refusing To Leave Sick Partner, Not Recognized As Family (UPDATE)
The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/11/gay-man-arrested-missouri-hospital_n_3060488.html
*****
UPDATE: 4/11 3:14 p.m. — Research Medical Center responded to the allegations in a Facebook post on Thursday afternoon.
This was an issue of disruptive and belligerent behavior by the visitor that affected patient care. The hospital’s response followed the same policies that would apply to any individual engaged in this behavior in a patient care setting and was not in any way related to the patient’s or the visitor’s sexual orientation or marital status. This visitor created a barrier for us to care for the patient. Attempts were made to deescalate the situation. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to involve security and the Kansas City MO Police Department.
*****
I’d still say it was the family who created the situation. They have a loved one who is ill and they insist his partner who has the legal right to make medical decisions be removed from the hospital room?
Otteray,
Did the man become belligerent? What did he do? If I were asked to leave my partner’s side, I’d be pretty upset. Shame on the family for requesting that their relative’s partner not be allowed in the room to comfort his loved one.
OS,
Thanks for digging deeper. I saw this story last night on another site and it gave the impression it was a simple patient visit.
OS:
now that makes good sense.
My son had a simple surgical procedure when he was 3 months old and the doctor was putting a tube in his windpipe for surgery and he told me to get out. I later asked him why and he said he had been attacked by fathers before while doing procedures on a child.
OS has a valid point….. Which is true….
Bron, a power of attorney is an expression of the wishes of an individual….. If one does not honor them… Then one would have to go to court I suppose to get an order to enforce it…. But yes, they are legally binding…. Regardless family’s always seem to get in the way….when they want to…
Sorry folks, this appears to be another non-story that initially presented one side of the story, without digging deeper. My son is an emergency room physician, and is the Medical Director of the emergency department of a hospital. This is a scenario that plays out all the time. It is not an everyday event, but sometimes visitors and family members have to be ejected from the ER. When a family member gets in the way of staff during a real emergency, they are always asked to leave the room. For example, if a visitor insists on holding the patient’s hand, or cradling their head while staff is trying to treat difficulty breathing or a heart attack. The treatment team needs to access both sides of the gurney or examination table unimpeded. They don’t want to take time to answer questions, or have a visitor throw up or faint if the procedure is messy. The visitor is also not sterile, and not wearing clean scrubs. If risk of infection is an issue, the visitor has to go.
Sometimes the family member, friend or significant other balks and refuses. There are many reasons. Sometimes the visitor fails to understand the gravity of the situation. Sometimes alcohol is involved. Sometimes the person is just oppositional and has a chip on his or her shoulder. For all we know, the ER doctor may have been gay, or has a gay kid. Two of my grandchildren are gay, but if it had been my physician son’s ER, and anyone refused to get out of the way of the treatment team, he or she would have been escorted out by security. That has happened before, and will almost certainly happen again.
Apparently, when Mr. Gorley became belligerent, security removed him from the room. From all accounts, he made such a scene that he was removed from the hospital altogether and told not to come back. Since then, he appears to have calmed down, and as of late last night, once again given full visiting privileges, and was referred to as the “husband” of the patient.
In point of fact, Research Medical Center in Kansas City was an early supporter of gay rights, and gives full same sex benefits to employees. Here is their policy statement:
As for the nurse refusing to check Mr. Gorley’s power of attorney, that is an emergency room. If there is a crisis going on bad enough they have to clear the room, you can bet they are not going to send someone to administration offices to get a paper. Not only that, it would not have mattered. Disruptive behavior in the ER will get you tossed no matter what. One of the most common orders you will hear a ER doctor or Head Nurse snap out is, “Get these people out of here.” That happened when my oldest daughter coded after giving birth to her first child. At that time my wife was Head Nurse if the Oncology Department of that hospital, and I was on the staff of the hospital. Regardless, the treatment team cleared the room.
This is exactly the kind of thing I wrote about last Sunday, when the newspapers do not do enough digging and there is no basic understanding of how things work. Mr. Gorley apparently ginned up a massive amount of support via the Internet. As we all know from a certain cute advertisement being run currently, “They are not allowed to put anything on Internet that is not true.”
I do not understand how the family can negate the power of attorney. If I had legal authority under a durable power of attorney, only the patient who gave me power of attorney could terminate it. What “legal” rights des a sister or brother really have in a case like this. I would Like to know what really went on in the room.
Andy:
I would like to know the answer to that question myself. It seems to me it should trump them since you make a rational choice in the matter.
I think this Gorley fellow had every right to be upset about his expulsion and if I was his partner, I would be pretty upset with my family for pressing this issue while I was in the hospital.
I guess a power of attorney doesnt mean too much?
Does a “power of attorney” trump the biological family rights?
Hospital aren’t the forum to hash out the social issues of the day. Their priority is the patient’s care as it should be. Both sides here should have exercised more maturity and concern for their loved one but when they didn’t it became the hospital’s job to separate the warring factions. Given the granted restraining order you could infer that Gorley’s actions were over the top.