What Hospital Visitation Rights Heroine Janice Langbehn Won’t Tell Obama

Roughly three years ago I commented on the sad and outrageous situation of how Janice Langbehn was prevented from seeing her partner of 20 years, Lisa Pond, as Lisa lay dying from a sudden brain aneurysm in the emergency room at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida. I also received a "thank you" e-mail from Janice for helping to publicize the injustice done to bother her and her family. Now, Janice has been apparently invited to the White House as part of the Obama administration's latest effort at form over substance when it comes to delivering on full legal equality for all LGBT Americans. Karen Ocamb has a post on LGBT Pov that she has requested be re posted to help highlight Janice's plight in the hope that such a travesty never happens again. Here is the post in its entirety:
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What Hospital Visitation Rights Heroine Janice Langbehn Won’t Tell Obama Tuesday – She’s in Pain and Financial Trouble.
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Janice Langbehn, the accidental activist most responsible for securing hospital visitation rights for LGBT families, will be a guest at the White House Pride event Tuesday night. Lambda Legal represented Langbehn last September in a federal lawsuit against Jackson Memorial Hospital, which had refused to allow Langbehn to see her dying partner, Lisa Pond, until a priest was admitted for last rites. The lawsuit was rejected by a federal court in Florida because there is no law requiring hospital visitation rights for gay people and their families. (This photo was taken of the whole family just before they boarded the R Family Cruise on the day Pond was suddenly stricken fatally ill.)
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White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel read about Langbehn’s story and brought it to President Obama, who signed a memo in April directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue regulations to allow hospital visitation rights for LGBT families. Obama personally called Langbehn to say he was sorry for what happened to her. The HHS regulations are due to be published on June 25th.
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But Langbehn is a proud woman and will probably not tell Obama or anyone else that she suffers from MS, is in constant pain from back surgery and other ailments, and is in financial trouble because she no longer has two incomes to help pay for her medical care and to take care of the couple’s three teenagers. Her current situation underscores how important federal benefits such as Social Security are.
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Langbehn discussed her situation with me for Frontiers as I followed up on a Human Rights Campaign initiative about rating hospitals. She has a fund set up on her website – but it has not been publicized. Hopefully, members of the LGBT community can express their gratitude for her work getting hospital visitation rights by stopping by her website and making a contribution.
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Here’s the story on Langbehn’s situation, as reported in Frontiers In LA:
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Hospital Visitation Rights Heroine Janice Langbehn in Financial Trouble
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Three years ago, the world heard the terrible story of how Janice Langbehn was prevented from seeing her partner of 20 years, Lisa Pond, as Lisa lay dying from a sudden brain aneurysm in the emergency room at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida. Last April, President Obama called Langbehn to apologize and tell her he was signing a memorandum requiring all hospitals that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding – nearly every hospital in America – to protect the visitation and healthcare decision-making rights of LGBT people.
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On June 7, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released its Healthcare Equality Index report, dedicated to Lisa Pond’s memory and Langbehn advocacy for hospital visitation rights. “Thanks to the tireless work of Langbehn and other advocates for health equality, this year [Jackson Memorial Hospital] updated its policies to protect the rights of LGBT patients and their families.
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The hospital has not yet apologized, however, Langbehn told Frontiers In LA, noting “their inability to just be human about it and just say they’re sorry. But that’s great that they have changed their polices. That’s what I ultimately wanted so that the next couple that comes through there doesn’t have to deal with the ordeal and the pain and the guilt that I’ve had to deal with for all these years.”
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But what the LGBT community does not know is that this gracious advocate for equality has Multiple Sclerosis and is struggling with financial hardship.
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“Lisa used to be my caregiver when I was ill,” Langbehn said. “I was able to pretty much work fulltime up until her death and then when I got ill, I had no one to care for me. After she passed away, whenever I’d have an MS flare and I’d get ill, I’d have to go into the hospital. And then I’d have to find care for the kids because I didn’t want them to go into foster care. And then I would lose wages – and this happened with more and more frequency, culminating in my having to have a disc removed from my back and having to have brain surgery – all after she died.
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It just drained me financially,” she continues. “I was disability-separated from my state job – I had been a Child Protective Services supervisor for the state of Washington for 16 years – because I could no longer perform the functions due to my MS. Pretty much we had a meeting on Friday and they let me go on Monday in August of 2008. I applied for Social Security right away. I went from making a middle-wage income to making 150% below the poverty line. And I still have three kids to raise.
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“The biggest chunk is having to pay my medical premiums, which were covered when I was working. When I was separated, I had to pay for it myself so $900 of my $1800 Social Security went to just keeping my medical going. And that’s not to mention the kids, paying the mortgage on the house, the car payment, all their activities. They’re every busy kids – that’s one thing Lisa really instill in them and I wasn’t about to take that away.”
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Pond’s parents had promised to help Langbehn pay for the children’s schools but have not even responded to an embarrassed request for a loan. “Pre-Lisa and Post-Lisa are two different sets of grandparents, sadly,” Langbehn said.
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This is no small matter. The kids are foster/adopted kids with developmental delays. On Feb. 18, 2007, at ages 9, 11 and 12, they saw their 39-year old mother Lisa unexpectedly collapse aboard the Rosie O’Donnell Family Cruise ship – a trip Langbehn bought as a surprise to celebrate the couple’s 15th Holy Union anniversary. The kids literally helped carry Pond to the medical facility aboard ship before she was taken to the hospital.
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“Lisa’s eyes were somewhat open as they were putting her into the ambulance,” Langbehn recalled. “We knew sign language because of the foster kids. She held up her good hand and signed ‘I love you’ to the kids and me – and that was the last time I saw her eyes open.” And it was the last time the kids saw their mom, too, since the hospital wouldn’t let them back to say goodbye either.
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Langbehn’s suffering isn’t over. “The brain surgery that I had for nerve condition related to the MS wasn’t successful so I’m facing another brain surgery,” she said. “I’m putting it off as long as I can because they’re going to have to cut a facial nerve to stop the pain. The back surgery was, for the most part successful, but now I have just arthritic degeneration so I need to go in for epidural injections – which I haven’t done yet. I’m too scared to do it.”
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On her blog – http://thelpkids.com – Langbehn asks for donations to Lambda Legal, which helped her after Pond’s death. But “it’s “too hard” asking for money for herself and the kids, she said. She hasn’t even asked her MCC church. The MS Society has helped with a hearing aide and childcare when she was in the hospital for a week.
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“I don’t want people to take pity on our family. Lisa and I just always kind of dealt with it, said Langbehn, the accidental activist who helped changed the lives of thousands of LGBT people.
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But showing gratitude is not showing pity. If you want to help, the Memorial Fund is: http://thelpkids.com/childrens-memorialeducational-fund/

Janice Langbehn Fights for Hospital Visitation Rights.

Back in February, 2008, I did two posts concerning the outrageous and horrible treatment of the late Lisa Pond and her partner, Janice Langbehn, by Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospitals Ryder Trauma Center. The second of those posts is here and it describes the fact that Janice contacted me directly and confirmed that (1) she and Lisa DID have proper legal medical powers of attorney, etc., and (2) that the hospital nonetheless still refused Janice access and treated her and Lisa in a shockingly reprehensible manner.

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Even in conservative Hampton Roads, Virginia, other than perhaps the Catholic hospitals - which I recommend my LGBT clients avoid - I am unaware of any hospitals that would so flagrantly ignore proper medical powers of attorney. This kind of mistreatment is but one of the many inequalities visited on LGBT citizens because we are not permitted legal marriages recognized in all states - all because some insist on injecting their religious beliefs into the civil laws. Fortunately, Janice is maintaining the fight to correct this travesty as reported by the Miami Herald. Here are some highlights:

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As her partner of 17 years slipped into a coma, Janice Langbehn pleaded with doctors and anyone who would listen to let her into the woman's hospital room. Eight anguishing hours passed before Langbehn, a Lacey, Wash., social worker would be allowed in to the Jackson Memorial's Ryder Trauma Center hospital quarters. By then it was just enough time to say her final farewell while standing next to a priest performing the last rites on 39-year-old Lisa Marie Pond.

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Staff at Jackson advised Langbehn that she could not see Pond earlier because the hospital's visitation policy in cases of emergency was limited to immediate family and spouses -- not partners.

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Langbehn turned to the courts for help. In June, she filed suit against the hospital, claiming negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On Friday, Langbehn's attorneys were back in Miami federal court to keep the case from being dismissed.

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Langbehn's supporters are livid. ''We are here to ensure that families get the respect they deserve at Jackson Memorial Hospital and to prevent Janice's tragedy from happening to anyone else,'' said Beth Littrell, an attorney for Lambda Legal, a national group that fights for the civil rights of gays. ``This family deserves to have it's day in court.''

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Though Langbehn had documents declaring her Lisa's legal guardian and giving her the medical ''power of attorney,'' JMH officials refused to recognize her or the kids as family. . . . Gay-rights activists have long contended that same-sex couples should share the same rights afforded to straight couples.

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I continue to be disgusted by the manner in which self-righteous, self-satisfied evangelical "Christians" and their religious extremist allies - and yes, I do mean the Mormons and the Vatican - interject their religious views into the civil laws. The passage of Florida's recent "Marriage Amendment" in November, 2004, is a case in point. But for their efforts, situations like this one involving Lisa Pond and Janice Langbehn would not occur.

Follow Up on Hospital Anti-gay Bigotry in Miami

On Friday I did a post about the nightmare situation of Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond and the refusal of Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, to allow Janice and their children to be with her stricken partner, Lisa Pond as she lay dying. Other than perhaps the Roman Catholic operated hospitals in this area (which I advise LGBT client’s to avoid like the plague), I am not aware of local hospitals even in this area refusing to honor properly executed medical powers of attorney and similar documents. Therefore, I was shocked to receive a message directly from Janice Langbehn today wherein she said that she and Lisa Pond DID have proper documentation and the hospital still refused Janice access.

This makes an outrageous situation truly unconscionable and I am extremely happy that Lambda Legal is getting involved to sue the hospital. I hate to say it, but I would treat an injured animal better than what Janice and her family experienced at Jackson Memorial Hospital. These healthcare providers ought to be utterly ashamed of themselves and their hateful institution. Personally, I will think twice before visiting Miami again. God forbid I become ill and end up at Jackson Memorial. For those who would like to know more, here are links to Janice’s blogs: http://rwavesofchange.com/ and http://thelpkids.com/ Janice descries the situation she experienced at the hospital in part as follows:

I tried to follow the gurney into the trauma bay but was stopped by the trauma team meeting Lisa and told to go to the waiting area. I did as I was told and a short while later a social worker appeared to inform me that I was - and I quote – “in an anti-gay city and state.” He explained that this meant that I would not be allowed to see Lisa or make decisions about her care without a Health Care Proxy. I asked for his name and fax number and within 20 minutes I had contacted close friends in Olympia, WA who raced to our house, found all our legal documents including our Durable Power of Attorney, Living Wills and Advance Directives and fax them to the hospital.

The true tragedy really came over the next five hours. With the priest, I recited the ritual of the Last Rites and prayed for Lisa and held her hand for the first time since she arrived at Ryder Trauma Center. Following my few minutes with Lisa, the priest ushered me out to the waiting room again. After finally seeing Lisa, I knew our children and I needed to be with her and I asked over and over if we could go back again and was repeatedly told by hospital staff, “No”. In those five hours, Lisa lay at Ryder Trauma Center moving toward brain death and yet no one was there to hold her hand and talk to her and tell her how much she was loved. Jackson Memorial Hospital, in their inability or unwillingness to recognize us as a family with legally adopted children, forced Lisa to be alone in her last moments of life.

What is so shocking about this entire saga is that Jackson Memorial is a PUBLIC hospital and not affiliated with any religious organization. In my opinion, not only does the hospital bear responsibility, but so does the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners that overseas its operations. Here is how Jackson Memorial's web site describes the hospital:

Governed by the Public Health Trust, a dedicated team of citizen volunteers acting on behalf of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, Jackson Health System ensures that all residents of Miami-Dade County receive a single high standard of care regardless of their ability to pay. Opened in 1918, Jackson Memorial Hospital is an accredited, tax-assisted, tertiary teaching hospital with over 1,500 licensed beds. In conjunction with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine faculty, Jackson Memorial provides a wide range of patient services, educational programs, a clinical setting for research activities and a number of health-related community services.

In the interest of providing more convenient and accessible healthcare services throughout the county, regardless of ability to pay, the Trust has continued its development of an integrated, coordinated primary care system at the request of the Board of County Commissioners.

For those interested in voicing their concerns and outrage, here are some contact links:

Mr. Marvin O'Quinn, President and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Robert Alonso, Vice President for Marketing/Public Relations

Mr. Steven Klein, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer

Patient Relations: If you or a friend/family member are a current or former patient of Jackson Health System and have questions or comments concerning the care received or the overall experience at a Jackson facility, please contact Patient Relations at 305-585-7341.