Obama orders end to the practice of denying same-sex partners hospital visits

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

I've never heard of the hospital preventing someone from seeing his/her same sex partner. Usually it's a next-of-kin, like a homophobic parent or jealous child from a previous heterosexual relationship, who's raising hell.

Yep.

My mom told me a sad story about a gay patient of hers (she's a nurse) who was being taken off of a ventilator after being declared braindead following a serious motorcycle accident.

He had been with his partner for 15 years (no civil unions here and Partner was all the family he had living in the area. Partner visited him everyday for a week. However, he was not Patient's legal next-of-kin. He never made Partner his NOK because he didn't want to open up the convo and upset his parents (and of course no one ever thinks they'll end up in a coma).

Well, Patient's PARENTS finally get into town to see their son and make decisions regarding taking him off of life support. They made that decision, and not only did not tell Partner they were planning to do that (they didn't have to, but still, how awful to go up for a visit and find out that way) but told the hospital that Partner was not allowed in Patient's room as he was dying.