Are you SURE the US offers the best health care on the planet?!

Almost a month has passed since U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Ryder Trauma Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, after this hospital cruelly prevented Lisa Marie Pond's grieving wife and children from offering comfort and succor to her as she lay dying from an unexpected brain aneurysm. Essentially, Ms. Pond died alone--on a vacation many miles from her home--while her grieving family was forced to wait for hours--also alone--in the trauma center's emergency room lounge (even for several hours after Ms. Pond was moved to ICU!).

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan dismissed the lawsuit on September 29, essentially finding that the Jackson Memorial Hospital was within its rights to leave a dying woman alone while denying her present and immediate family to visit her, be updated on her condition, or even to provide the hospital with medically necessary information.

How in the world did this hospital justify its actions? How possibly did Judge Jordan justify his decision?!?

Lisa Marie Pond was a lesbian. Her partner of eighteen years, Janice Langbehn, provided the staff at the hospital with a health care directive form and Durable Power of Attorney documents in her fruitless attempts to be with Lisa while she was still cognizant of her surroundings and her loved ones. Garnett Frederick, the hospital's social worker, told Ms Langbehn that “you are in an anti-gay city and state. And without a health care proxy you will not see Lisa nor know of her condition.”

In less than 24 hours, Lisa Marie Pond died...alone and without the comforting presence of her beloved partner of eighteen years and their four small children. Only when it became critical to harvest Ms. Pond's organs did the hospital begin to treat Ms. Langbehn like Lisa's spouse, because--of course--organ donors are good business regardless of the donor's sexual orientation.

Please write letters to Judge Jordan and the Ryder Trauma Center, and let them know that we will not tolerate such injustices against ourselves OR our LGBT brothers and sisters!


U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan 400 N. Miami Avenue, Room #10-1. Miami, FL 33128

Ryder Trauma Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital 1611 NW 12th Ave. Miami, FL 33136 (Patient Relations at 305-585-7341)

Even for those who have access; and especially not for the uninsured and underinsured.

when loved ones are not allowed to be at our side when we are dieing. My god I hope those who were responsible do not have to share the same fate

we are all just dying to feed the greedy and rich.

what you describe in your OP is a terrible failure of the system surrounding the medical care, not the medical care itself. The problem in this country is not that the talent, skill, dedication and technological advance of the actual caregivers is second rate, because it's not. The great failure lies in the fact that not everyone has equal access to it.

The terrible things done to the people in the OP were done not by medical staff, but by pencil-pushers and judges.

The privileged class, or the peasant class? How can draw any conclusions lest we know?

And everything to do with hateful, bible-blowing asswipes.

I did not indicate in my title or in the article I wrote herein above that I was discussing health care reform. However, to a greater extent than I care to think about, our health care system needs to revamp so that patients come first--and NOT the doctors, insurers, or myriad faceless bureaucrats who make profit-motivated decisions that disrespect patients and/or their families.