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
Having lived in KC I know this hospital and folks who worked there. It is a well respected hospital and it was the trauma unit where KC cops were taken[maybe still are] when shot. I learned from cops in KC and other places that you always want to go to the trauma unit where cops are taken when shot, it’s the best one.
Well!! Folks are coming to realize what I made my living doing. Yes, Virginia the “facts” are not always “facts” and one must weed through normal bias and other factors. When it is a pc issue “facts” mean little to people w/ a political viewpoint. So, hash this one out folks and make sure you don’t admit one iota of bias, that’s becoming the new American way.
Elaine,
No press conference yet, and none announced. Checked every one of the KC news outlets and there is nothing. If there was a press conference, it would have been easy to find.
Tex has been admitted through the emergency room more times than I can count. I have a slew of paper work and copies of same that go with him in the ambulance and that my daughter and I (she shares Power Of Health Atty with me so that he is always covered) carry with us to present when we get there. The reason being that there are several common, oft prescribed medications that if administered to him would kill him with one dose.
My mother was the head nurse in the Emergency Room for years, her classmates were similarly employed in different departments and three of my nieces are nurses presently working in hospitals. All of them, every single one, stress the importance of closely watching what is being done, asking questions, and firmly intervening if necessary. We even carry a notarized note from his heart doctor with instructions that she is to be contacted if the family requests it.
My daughter and I have no fear of asking, “What are you giving him now?” and no hesitancy in responding if the staff tries to brush us off. On more than one occasion we have saved his life as he lay on that Emergency Room bed by asking the question … “what are you giving him” … “stop, check his file, he’s allergic to (insert name of drug) or that drug will interfere with (insert name of drug)”
I can’t say what happened in this particular case but after reading all the different posts, Mr. Gorley probably had the best working knowledge of his partner’s health situation and carried the legal documents necessary … he has my sympathy.
Okay, here’s the recipe. It’s a Spaghetti Sauce recipe, but you can also use it for lasagna. It’s a crock pot recipe.
Makes 8 to 10 servings:
2 lbs. mild Italian sausage or ground beef
3 medium onions, chopped (about 2 1/4 cups)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 14 1/2 oz.cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 29 oz. can tomato sauce
1 12 oz. can tomato paste
2 Tbsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Cook sausage, onions, mushrooms, and garlic in skillet over medium heat for 10 minutes. Drain. Transfer to slow cooker. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover. Cook on low 8-9 hours.
This recipe “Feasting with your Slow Cooker” isn’t for the smaller cooker.
Otteray,
The hospital would have to assume that people interested in this story are Facebook users…and that said people would look on Facebook to see if the hospital had made an official statement regarding the Gorley situation.
Has the hospital held a press conference yet?
I can see the reasoning for responding on Facebook. A lot of companies do that, as well as people in the news. It is the fastest way to get a statement out since Facebook has one billion registered users. That is a lot of eyeballs.
Otteray,
I admit that I’m skeptical of the hospital’s story. I, too, think it’s a CYA statement.
I’m not on Facebook either. I think it interesting, though, that a hospital would respond to the negative publicity it was getting on Facebook.
Matt,
NSAID = nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
Non-narcotic pain relief, which includes ibuprofen, asprin, and naproxin, among others. More at the link
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-steroidal_anti-inflammatory_drug
After digging around on the internet for more than a half hour, I have come to the conclusion everyone is doing a fine job of CYA. At this point, I am skeptical of all statements, since most of the people making statements appear to have a particular point of view or advocacy position they are promoting. Every lawyer on this blog is familiar with that phenomenon.
Elaine, in response to your question, the hospital policy on diversity and equality has been in place since 2005, so on that point at least, that appears to be a done deal long before this incident. I am not on Facebook, so am not privy to what people or organizations post there–most of it is just gossip anyway.
I did go to the hospital’s web site and dug around to see if their claims about diversity had any additional history. I found the page at the link, which was last updated October 18, 2011. The copyright date at the bottom is for the whole web site, and not just that page.
http://researchmedicalcenter.com/your-health/?/36554/
Elaine M. 1, April 12, 2013 at 10:27 am
Matt,
The family member can’t take Ibuprofen because it’s an NSAID.
——————————
What is an NSAID? I have plenty of ibuprofen. I also have aspirin.
I can make better lasagna than you.
Matt,
The family member can’t take Ibuprofen because it’s an NSAID.
This was written by Roger Gorley’s daughter, who was there at the time: http://www.weareatheism.com/arrested-at-hospital-just-for-wanting-to-hold-his-partners-hand/
Elaine M. 1, April 12, 2013 at 10:15 am
Take four ibuprofen. Don’t bother calling me in the morning. The ex-wife told me later that the doctor was gay.
Another side of the story:
Exclusive interview with daughter of gay man handcuffed, dragged from husband’s hospital bed
4/11/2013 7:21pm
by John Aravosis
http://americablog.com/2013/04/interview-daughter-gay-man-handcuffed-husbands-hospital-bed.html
Excerpt:
I just spoke with Amanda Brown, 26, the daughter of Roger Gorley, who was handcuffed and dragged away from the bed of his husband, Allen Mansell, at the Research Medical Center in Lee’s Summit, Missouri on Tuesday.
Amanda, who was in the hospital room when her father, Roger, was taken away by the police, directly contradicts the hospital’s claim that Roger needed to be removed because he was “disruptive.”
She also accuses the police of wearing gloves, and worrying that her father had AIDS, simply because he was gay.
Hospital says gay husband was “disruptive and belligerent”
“This was an issue of disruptive and belligerent behavior by the visitor that affected patient care,” the hospital alleged in a statement released Thursday afternoon, after the story had gained national attention. In addition to intense media scrutiny and anger in the gay community, federal officials are now also investigating.
The incident happened Tuesday around 4pm, central time.
According to Amanda, her father Roger had every reason to be disruptive at his husband’s hospital bedside – his authority as Allen’s spouse, and thus the person in charge of Allen’s medical decisions, were Allen unable to make them himself, was being challenged by Allen’s brother, Lee, in the presence of a nurse.
Roger has Allen’s medical power of attorney, so there should have been no question as to who was legally responsible for care decisions.
Nurse allegedly knew the parties, yet did nothing to confirm Roger had medical power of attorney
What’s more, the nurse, according to daughter Amanda, knew Roger and Allen. Amanda say the nurse must have known that Roger was Allen’s designated representative, as they had been to the hospital many times before, and had been treated by the same nurse.
“The nurse knew who my farther was, she knew who Allen was,” Amanda told me by phone. “She had treated Allen before, and dad had been there before, dad had signed off on medical treatments before. She should have had all the information on file.”
Amanda says that the nurse had her father removed because of the loud disagreement her father was having with his partner’s brother, Lee, who had arrived at the hospital room at the same time as her father.
Rather than intervene and inform the brother that Roger was in fact the designated representative of his gay partner, the nurse had Roger removed. This, in spite of Allen reportedly saying from his hospital bed that he wanted his husband to stay in the room with him.
“Allen said he wanted dad in the room,” Amanda told me. “He said ‘I want him here’” as the nurse was asking Roger to leave.
When I asked Amanda if the nurse was possibly not aware of what the fight was about, Amanda responded: “She knew what was going on.”
Nurse had gay spouse removed, even though daughter says other man was more disruptive and belligerent
Amanda says that Lee, the man her father was fighting with, was being more disruptive and belligerent than her father, yet the hospital had her father removed – and then did nothing about Lee’s continued presence.
“Lee was being more crazy than my dad, he was the one who was yelling,” Amanda said. No matter. According to Amanda, the nurse “directed her comments to Roger, ‘you need to leave the room.’ My dad said, ‘no, this is my husband, I’m going to stay with him.”
That’s when the hospital called the police to remove Roger, in spite of the fact that Amanda says Allen specifically asked for Roger to be permitted to stay.
Mike,
Our family recently went through a hospital go around concerning the medical problems of a close relative. I know how important it is to have an advocate there to speak up for you when you may not be able to–or when you are highly medicated and may not be thinking as clearly as usual. I have an in-law who has been an ER doctor and who currently supervises an ICU at a hospital. He has helped the family a great deal with his medical advice. He was livid when he found out that that close family member was discharged from the hospital without a correct diagnosis of his medical problem…without any medication for pain…without any plans for a follow-up visit. That family member was taken to the ER just twelve hours after being discharged from the hospital–at the advice of our “family” doctor. He even called the ER and provided doctors with the medical information before the relative’s arrival. He told us that the doctor who discharged the family member from the hospital should be disciplined.
Saw, not say. I did dine at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Once. They were extremely polite, and the food was good. I never went back.
I won’t look at that. I don’t like it. I’m sorry to keep saying this, but I say men kissing each other in San Francisco and I didn’t like it.
Elaine,
Thanks for the clarification. It is valuable.