LEES SUMMIT, Mo. — The daughter of a Missouri man who was arrested after refusing to leave the bedside of his spouse at a Kansas City hospital earlier this week, is speaking out, and has called the hospital’s statement of events “absolute and utter bullshit.”
On Tuesday, Roger Gorley was arrested at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., after refusing a nurse’s order to leave the hospital where his husband, Allen Mansell, had been admitted. The nurse allegedly ignored Gorley’s medial power of attorney, and instead acted on the request of the patient’s brother.
According to a statement by Research Medical Center, Gorley was “disruptive and belligerent” and “created a barrier for us to care for the patient. Attempts were made to deescalate the situation. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to involve security and the Kansas City MO Police Department.”
But Gorley’s daughter, Amanda Brown, said she accompanied her father to Research Medical Center on Tuesday and provided a first-hand account of the events that led to her father’s arrest.
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Brown, 28, described an entirely different account of events from the two statements released by the hospital, which she called “absolute and utter bullshit.”
Brown said that her father had every reason to be disruptive at Mansell’s bedside – his authority as Mansell’s medical power of attorney had been challenged by Mansell’s brother, Lee, in the presence of a nurse.
The story, in her words:
Roger immediately rushed to Allen’s side, grabbed his hand, and reassured him everything will be ok. He will handle everything. He is in good hands and they will be going home as soon as possible.
His brother Lee decided to say similar things but to also add in that he will not allow Roger to make these decisions and he will make sure everything is ok. Well that ignited the fire in my father that had been swelling up inside of him. He said, “No you won’t! This is my husband. I know what he wants and needs. You are never around. You need to leave.”
The nurse had had enough at this point and asked my father to leave.
He gave her a surprised look back and said “No I’m staying with my husband.” She responded with “I know who you two are. You need to leave.”
My father took this as she had treated Allen before, knew who my father was to him, and was making the decision that they didn’t have the right to one another as husband and husband. So instead of checking the file to see his power of attorney in his medical chart (they each have one for each other) she immediately called the police and had my father forcibly removed.
7pm CST
When the Kansas City Missouri Police Department arrived they asked my father to leave the room. He said to them, “No. This is my husband and I am going to stay with him.”
The police considered that a violation of a direct order so they began to forcibly remove him from the room. My father held onto the rail of the gurney as well as his husbands hand with everything he had. The police responded with brut and excessive force.
The officer began karate chopping his wrist to get him to release the gurney. Then they wrestled him to the ground forcefully enough to knock his glasses off of his face, his hearing aids out of his ears, and nearly break his wrist while they took him down. To handcuff him they pushed a knee into his back and wrenched his wrists around.
It didn’t end there. The police changed his handcuffs 4 times! They assumed because he was a gay man that he was HIV+.
When they drew blood from accosting him in such a brutal manner they freaked out. One of the arresting officers was so offended by my father’s presence that he would not touch him with his bare hands. He wore gloves the entire time and to make matters even more humiliating he didn’t want his handcuffs back. He grabbed them with gloves on, then another layer of gloves pinched between his index finger and thumb as he handed them off to another officer.
The officer taking the handcuffs looked at him like he was crazy and just grabbed the handcuffs with no issue.
My father, Roger Gorley, is a kind compassionate man. He doesn’t loose his temper, has never expressed violence in anger, and is so sweet he can’t even make threats to people properly.
It took 3 hours to process him through the system and get him bailed out of jail. A $600 fine for disorderly conduct and trespassing and has a restraining order against him from the hospital saying he is not allowed to step foot back on the hospital grounds even to see his husband.
Brown said that Research Medical Center did not follow appropriate steps to resolve the matter, and disregarded Mansell’s HIPAA directive, and the medical power of attorney the hospital had on file.
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Meanwhile, according to a report by Buzzfeed, federal officials are “aware” of the situation and are looking to collect facts and take the appropriate steps “in a speedy manner.”
Brown added that her father is currently working with the ACLU, and is “planning to respond” to the hospital’s action.
Hospital Corporation of America, which is the parent company of Research Medical Center, said it is still investigating the incident.
