Lesbian says Fresno hospital barred partner

Community Regional kept her from bedside for hours, ex-patient says.

Published online on Monday, Jun. 15, 2009

A woman says Community Regional Medical Center temporarily barred her partner from visiting her in the emergency room after she collapsed at a rally for same-sex marriage last month in Fresno.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Center for Lesbian Rights said the hospital discriminated against the Bay Area lesbian couple when it prevented the visitation. They want an apology and for the hospital to make comprehensive changes to its visitor policy.

Hospital officials said an internal investigation had revealed nothing inappropriate in the women's treatment.

The couple's attorneys say the hospital kept Teresa Rowe, 30, from accompanying Kristin Orbin, 29, into the emergency room on May 30. And staff prevented Rowe, who grew up in Clovis, from going to the bedside of Orbin for several hours, the attorneys say.

Orbin and Rowe are not married, but have been partners for four years.

In a June 15 letter sent to the Community Medical Centers' board of trustees, the attorneys said: "It appears that Kristin was treated 'differently' as a patient at the Community Regional Medical Center because she is lesbian. Both she and Teresa informed all relevant hospital personnel of their relationship, and both were wearing marriage equality T-shirts. Yet Teresa was not even allowed to provide Kristin's doctor with necessary medical information."

The attorneys have asked for a reply from the hospital by Monday.

Michelle Van Valkenburg, director of the communications department at Community Medical Centers, said in a statement that the hospital regretted "that patient Kristin Orbin perceived the visitation policy in our emergency department to be unfair. However, we've done an internal investigation and found nothing inappropriate.

"It appears the patient received good care and that proper procedures were followed. In the interest of other patients' privacy, visitation in a busy emergency unit often must be constrained, and we understand an individual patient may not be aware of those circumstances."

Rowe was unavailable Monday evening for comment.

Orbin said she was taken by ambulance to the hospital after she collapsed and had seizures after completion of a 14-mile march from Selma to Fresno for the "Meet in the Middle" rally on May 30. Orbin said she has epilepsy.

"When we got to the hospital, my partner was not allowed to go through the ambulance doors," she said.

Once inside the emergency room, Orbin said, she asked to see Rowe, but was told she was in a no-visitor zone. Other people around her had visitors, she said. She fell asleep. When she awoke, she asked for Rowe, but again was told she couldn't have a visitor, Orbin said.

Rowe, a massage therapist, is her designated health-care agent and can make medical decisions if she is unable, Orbin said. Rowe had volunteered to produce a copy of the directive, Orbin said.

Orbin, a psychology student, said while at Community she was given a dose of Ativan, a drug used to treat seizures. Rowe had asked that the drug not be administered, Orbin said. "It gives me a really bad migraine."

Rowe was brought to see her only when Orbin saw a doctor and asked him if her partner could be at her bedside, Orbin said. She had been at the hospital about four to five hours before Rowe was allowed to visit, she said.

Orbin said she wants Community to "give us a sincere apology and put a program in place to train their employees to not let this happen again."

No decision has been made about a lawsuit, she said.

Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney at the ACLU office in San Francisco, said she will wait to evaluate other action. "We're not closing the door on legal action here."

In the letter to the hospital, attorneys asked Community to adopt a visitation policy that among other points affirms all patients' rights to have visitors, explicitly including same-sex partners and their children.