St. Mary’s County woman’s viral video prompts hospital apology
LEONARDTOWN, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - A St. Mary’s County woman’s emotional video has gone viral after she says a local hospital refused to let her sit in the waiting room with her mother-in-law – who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
According to Laura Kramer, the incident erupted last Wednesday when she tried taking her mother-in-law to the emergency room at MedStar St. Mary's Hospital.
That’s when she was told repeatedly she had to leave her relative and wait in the car.
Kramer shared her tearful reaction on Facebook.
“To be denied medical care because I refused to leave my mother in law who has Alzheimer's and does not even know my name. For them to tell me that I need to leave her. I am angry. I am hurt. I cannot believe that there is a medical group that would do this,” she said.
Kramer’s video has racked up more than 300,000 views.
She says she shot it after not getting any answers from Medstar St. Mary’s Hospital’s staff.
Hospitals are limiting visitors because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Kramer says she wasn’t a visitor – and she refused to leave her mother-in-law alone in the Leonardtown Hospital’s ER.
Instead, she drove to another hospital in Charles County.
She says her mother-in-law is doing much better, but she wants to make sure that doesn’t happen anywhere else.
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Kramer spoke to FOX 5 on Tuesday after the hospital admitted that its employees wrongly applied their visitor policy.
"I really felt that I could show my daughters that you stand up for what's right and you speak out on what's right. So I was really proud and happy and grateful that people reached out and could give some positive support,” Kramer said.
The hospital says it will be re-educating its employees about handling similar situations. They say in Kramer’s case, the hospital should have made an exception.