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WWJD? Apparently if he was a doctor at Trinitas Regional Medical Center, a Catholic community teaching hospital in Elizabeth, NJ, he’d deny life-saving medications to patients with HIV — and deny visitation rights to relatives as punishment — if they are gay. Joao Simoes is suing the hospital in Union County Superior Court because of allegedly discriminatory treatment by Susan V. Borga, M.D. of the Department of Behavioral Health and Psychiatry. (Courthouse News Service):
Borga then allegedly asked Simoes how he got HIV, to which he responded, “I got it from unprotected sex.” The complaint then says that “Dr. Borga closed the plaintiff’s file, put it down and looked at plaintiff with disgust on her face and asked, coldly, “Is that from sex with men?”
Simoes says he responded affirmatively and that, “immediately after hearing this, Dr. Borga proceeded to exit the room.”
It should be noted that this doctor treated another patient that had been released from prison having done time for murder without batting a moral eye. More:
After this consultation, no nurse or doctor came to see Simoes, even though he told them that he needed to take his HIV medication, according to the complaint. When the hospital finally permitted Simoes to call his personal physician on the third day of his stay, he learned that the doctor had already spoken with Borga about Simoes’ medication, according to the complaint.
Borga allegedly responded: “You must be gay, too, if you’re his doctor.”
“Additionally, apparently realizing that plaintiff’s doctor had an accent, Dr. Borga exclaimed, ‘What, do you need a translator?’ to which plaintiff’s doctor had again responded that Dr. Borga needed to give plaintiff his HIV medication,” the complaint states. ”Dr. Borga responded to plaintiff’s doctor by stating, ‘This is what he gets for going against God’s will,’ and hung up the phone on plaintiff’s doctor.”
Let’s see…here is the mission statement of the hospital.
At Trinitas Regional Medical Center we dedicate ourselves to God’s healing mission. We strive to provide excellent, compassionate healthcare to the people and communities we serve, including those among us who are poor and vulnerable.
VISION
Trinitas Regional Medical Center will continue to advance its position as a premier healthcare provider in Central New Jersey thatSupports the mission and core values of Trinitas Health
Exemplifies service excellence by continually improving quality and exceeding customer expectation
Is recognized for outstanding medical and nursing care and for advanced capabilities in selected clinical specialties
Is acclaimed for the education of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals
Is the hospital of choice for physicians and patients
VALUES
Faithful to the values of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth and Elizabethtown Healthcare Foundation, Trinitas Regional Medical Center is committed to:Compassion
Provide service in a caring, personalized manner to all and serve as an advocate for those in greatest needCommunity
Advocate for a society in which each person in our organization and in the community can realize his or her full potential and achieve the common goodReverence for Life
Recognize and respect the dignity and value of life in every stage and conditionResponsible Stewardship
Manage all resources responsibly in support of our missionCharity
Witnesses to God’s love by serving all peopleCourage
Dare to take the risks our mission demands of us
I don’t see anything about “except TEH HOMOs.” As John Aravosis said over at AmericaBlog:
And we know that the Catholic church would rather let orphan children go homeless than obey civil rights laws (and would rather let children be serially raped than obey laws on rape and child abuse).
And we know that religious right Republicans want pharmacists to have the right to turn away anyone they don’t morally agree with.
So it was only a matter of time before the Catholics chose to let gays die in the name of the Lord.
5 Comments
not to mention that this good “christian” hospital also recently settled a Medicar Fraud case for over two million dollars. So “Christian” they can steal money and defraud the government, but if you happen to be gay, God’ love is out of the question. Shameful.
i’ve always felt the profession of psychiatry is terrifying, thinking they are just as likely as anyone else in a position of relatively absolute power to have their own collection of obsessions, hatreds, bigotries and neuroses with which they can terribly abuse the defenseless and weak if they choose.
It’s right there in the list of “values”. In Catholic doctrine-speak, “reverence for life” means celebrating an exclusionary, patriarchal, heterosexual-supremacist and reproduction-obsessed model of human sexuality as the obvious and unquestionable Truth (and punishing variation from that model as harshly as possible).
Is that dingbat’s middle name “Lucrezia”? Did she get her medical degree at Liberty University? It sounds like she’s one that all patients should avoid for a lot of reasons. Not being too bright is the primary one.
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