A Miami federal court has dismissed a lawsuit by a lesbian who was not permitted to visit her dying partner in the hospital while vacationing in South Florida.
Thirty-nine-year-old Lisa Marie Pond collapsed aboard a cruise ship after a brain aneurysm in February 2007 while the couple was celebrating their 18th year together. She was admitted to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was semi-conscious and responsive for several ours after she arrived, according to court documents.
A number of hospital employees, including an admitting clerk and a social worker, would not allow Janice Langbehn, Pond’s partner, to visit Pond, even after they were faxed documents that said Langbehn had power-of-attorney for Pond. Langbehn and the couple’s four children were forced to wait in the hospital waiting room for hours and were only allowed access for a few minutes as a priest gave Pond her last rites. Langbehn said the hospital staff would only offer limited information about Pond’s condition.
Pond died the next day.
The court found that if the allegations are true, the hospital personnel’s lack of sensitivity and attention caused Langbehn and their children needless distress and “exhibited a lack of compassion and was unbecoming of a renowned trauma center like Ryder.”
However, the judge agreed to the motion to dismiss, which was filed by the Public Health Trust of Miami Dade County. The court ruled that the hospital has neither an obligation to allow their patients visitors nor any obligation whatsoever to provide their patients’ families, healthcare surrogates, or visitors with access to patients in their trauma unit.”
Langbehn’s attorneys may file a second complaint by Oct. 16. If they don’t, the case is closed.
