Jun 25, 2008 7:57 pm US/Eastern
JMH Sued Over Access To Dying Gay Partner
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A woman is suing Jackson Memorial Hospital because she says she was denied access to her lesbian partner as she lay dying in bed.
Janice Langbehn says she and her children were kept away from her partner, Lisa Pond, as she battled for her life. Now, Langbehn is speaking out and suing JMH.
"I'm finding the strength to speak out so this doesn't have to happen to any other family because what happened to us was very wrong," Langbehn said.
Pond had just boarded a cruise ship at the Port of Miami when she collapsed from a brain aneurysm and was taken to Ryder Trauma Center. At that point, Langbehn said the mistreatment of her and the children started.
"He looked at me and said, 'I'm Garnett Frederick, I'm a social worker and this is an anti-gay city and state and you won't get to see your partner without a health care proxy,'" Janice recalled. "So I said, give me your fax."
The Washington state women had been together for 18 years and legally adopted the children. They also had planned for a situation like this. Langbehn said friends faxed a power of attorney form giving her the right to make medical decisions for Pond.
However, Langbehn and her children had to wait 8 hours to see Pond. By that time, Pond had slipped into a coma, from which she never recovered.
Langbehn has joined forces with Lambda Legal to sue JMH. Her lawyer said there was no excuse for the behavior.
"Despite a doctor's acknowledgement that no medical reason to keep the family apart, no one at Ryder allowed family to be together," said Beth Litrell, an attorney with Lambda legal.
"I sat there and kept racking my brain, and kept screaming into the Miami night, you know, and I felt like a failure without holding her hand," said Langbehn as she sobbed.CBS4 contacted Jackson Memorial Hospital for its side of the story, but an attorney for the hospital told us she could not comment on a pending lawsuit.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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