Goth guy initially resfused treatment at Rockyview Hospital

[Regulator75]

A Calgary man says he’s furious after he was initially denied admission to the Rockyview General Hospital for a wrist injury this weekend when he refused to remove an inverted cross necklace he regularly wears as part of his goth garb.

Stevahn Bullen, 22, said he feels he was discriminated against by a hospital admitting clerk and wants to ensure no one else faces the same barriers when seeking public health care.

“I’m there to get medical attention and I find that absolutely horrible. I was basically denied medical attention right away because he didn’t want to help me,” Bullen said Sunday.

“The fact I was singled out because I was wearing something that was offensive to him and denied service — that kind of makes me lose hope in humanity a little bit.”

Do I like this kids "look" no, does this mean he should be discriminated against at a Hospital of all places? Hell no.
Hopefully the staff member involved gets demoted to a non patient area at Rockyview (like washing dishes).

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/...339/story.html

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Bullen, who was admitted by another clerk and received treatment for his wrist, said other health professionals in the hospital treated him well and apologized for what happened.

The guy should have just done his job, that being said to say he was refused treatment is slightly sensationalistic.

[Regulator75]

Well, originally refused treatment.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

By like 2 minutes. Which wouldn't impact the timeframe in which he was seen by a medical professional.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by fotze

True. The person should still be fired. Refusing on the basis that the person is wearing a necklace with two perpendicular sticks, where the horizontal stick is a quarter of an inch lower than you would like indicates severley limited intelligence and possibly the indication of ######ism.

I wouldn't say fired but I agree that they should be reprimanded based upon the article, who knows though as there is really only one side to the story that is in the press.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by fotze

Well the health region is really apologizing their brains out, so it seems like they acknowledge the stupidity.

Of course he's being all drama-ey, kinda what you would expect being a gother. I bet the 'injury' is pretty mild as well.

when I saw wrist injury I just assumed he cut himself

[Bigtime]

“The fact I was singled out because I was wearing something that was offensive to him and denied service — that kind of makes me lose hope in humanity a little bit.

Wait, I thought goths had already lost hope in humanity? POSER spotted!

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

when I saw wrist injury I just assumed he cut himself

Yep, me too. Thought he was going to be denied admission because of self inflicted wound at first.

According to the one-sided story the clerk denied admitting the man based on his religious views, that's completely unacceptable.

As a Catholic, I understand if he was offended by the cross (although he shouldn't be, that's St. Peter's cross) but he's in a job position where there's absolutely no grey area to let your personal beliefs dictate anything even if it was just a non-life threatening scratch.

[Kavvy]

We all work with dummies, and we all make mistakes. If the clerk in question has no history of this, give him/her a very strong punishment, other than being fired (not to mention this may be a medical student who tax payers have already invested huge $$$ into their education). I vote unpaid suspension, personal apology and let it go. Firing someone is a drastic impact on their life, we are too easy to take that route for one (very dumb) moment.

Best part of article

Bullen, who was admitted by another clerk and received treatment for his wrist, said other health professionals in the hospital treated him well and apologized for what happened.

There is hope in humanity after all...

[Redliner]

It'll be interesting to see what ends up coming out of the investigation. While I also would find an inverted cross offensive, the admitting nurse has an obligation to be professional and provide treatment regardless of the patient's appearance or convictions. This isn't McDonalds with a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" sign on the door.

That said - having had some pretty extensive experience in the medical field, I have to say it's pretty rare to hear of something like this happening. So rare, in fact, that it makes me wonder if there isn't a whole lot more to the story. It would take a lot more than an inverted cross pendant to rattle most of the nurses I know, (and yes, some of them are deeply religious) so you have to ask yourself what the attitude of this individual was, and what kind of additional comments were made. The media is all over this because everyone loves a story about someone supposedly having their rights repressed, but I have a hard time believing that little goth boy went in there polite as a princess and was callously rejected by the big bad establishment because someone didn't like his necklace.

[longsuffering]

Would refusing to serve the goth patient be 'protected' by the Wildrose Party? IIRC, conscience rights were part of the campaign they ran on.

[HPLovecraft]

My fiancee, who had a fall that put her in a wheelchair, was treated quite badly by a number of the nurses at a hospital here in Ontario during her time spent there. I won't get into specifics, but let's just say it does not surprise me in the least a low-level orderly would behave this way.

[Northendzone]

so is it more correct to say that he was denied the right to have paperwork about him completed?

[mustache ride]

Just a human troll! Sets out to personally offend random people by wearing a cross upside down, succeeds and then complains about it.And the article says that he was the one that walked away. LOL

[shermanator]

Also, who the hell names their kid Stevahn? No wonder he's mad at the world...

[troutman]

Goths in Eagle Ridge!

[Bill Bumface]

I think they used low angle photos of his face to spoof the Mars rover landing.

[Sliver]

This shouldn't have happened, but I learned a little trick about getting better service at the hospital when I was in and out quite a few times with a brutal case of pneumonia that wouldn't go away in 2008. I started dressing up before going...not suit and tie, but dress shoes, nice slacks and a dress shirt versus my normal jeans and t-shirt attire. Got way better service when I started doing that.

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by Sliver

This shouldn't have happened, but I learned a little trick about getting better service at the hospital when I was in and out quite a few times with a brutal case of pneumonia that wouldn't go away in 2008. I started dressing up before going...not suit and tie, but dress shoes, nice slacks and a dress shirt versus my normal jeans and t-shirt attire. Got way better service when I started doing that.

Did you get a better table by the window?

[jammies]

I got run over by a pretzel truck once, and I went home to put on a snazzy polo and a pair of peter12-approved leather loafers before heading over to the hospital. It worked as they put me into the luxury section of emergency, with the complimentary handjobs and extra vials of morphine.