Expensive upgrade
Ian Elliot
The Whig Standard [CA]
7/31/2010
A couple is facing a $750 hospital bill after they had to leave a ward in Kingston General Hospital’s maternity ward because a Muslim woman was breastfeeding her newborn.
John Kennedy said he and another man were also forbidden from using the sink in the shared bathroom to dampen cloths so they could clean their babies.
He and his wife and the other couple were moved out of the room on religious grounds that were made clear to him by medical staff on the floor, who said unrelated men are forbidden from being in the room while the Muslim woman was breastfeeding.
Kennedy’s wife had an emergency C-section on Nov. 15 and was barely able to move, let alone care for their newborn, as a result of the surgery.
The couple were moved into a private room, where Kennedy could use the sink but the couple were later billed $250 a day by the hospital for the upgrade.
After seven months of trying to have the hospital cancel the bill for a room he never asked for or needed, he says he has had enough.
“It’s political correctness gone mad,” he said.
“My wife and I were quite content in that room, and we would have been quite happy if they had moved us into a closet, quite frankly.”
Most rooms in the maternity ward have four beds, each of which are screened off by floor-to-ceiling curtains.
Kennedy said his wife was in one of those quads, as was another non-Muslim couple. A single mother occupied the fourth bed.
Kennedy said staff told him he was not allowed to use the shared washroom in the room, which he said did not initially seem to be an issue…
The article continues at The Whig Standard.
H/T to Canadian bloggers Blazing Cat Fur and 5 Feet of Fury.
