Turning Their Backs On A Fellow Human Being

You know how when you're sick, all you really want is for someone to make you feel better. Whether it's your mother, father, spouse, doctor. You just want to feel good, and be treated kindly.

Well, that's all Erin Vaught wanted.

Vaught, a transsexual woman, said she was ridiculed by Ball Memorial Hospital staff and eventually denied treatment when she went to a Muncie, Indiana emergency room coughing up blood.

Coughing up blood.

Vaught is a transsexual, transitioning from from male to female, and when she, her wife, and her son, went to the ER last month, she was entered into the hospital computer system as male despite having an ID that stated she was female.

"I pointed out that my ID says female," Vaught said. "There were two ladies there, and one of them snickered a little bit and covered her mouth. The other got a very annoyed look on her face."

Nice. They're hired to help make people better and they act like children. But it only got worse.

When Erin Vaught entered an examination room, she was met with stares and insults; she was referred to as a "he-she," an "it," and a "transvestite."

She is, in fact, a human being who was coughing up blood and wanted someone to make her feel better.

Vaught said she was kept waiting for two hours without treatment before a doctor saw her and said she couldn't treat her because of her condition.

Her condition?

Erin Vaught: "I was confused. I told them I didn't know my condition, that's why I was there. [But the doctor] said 'No, the transvestite thing.' She said I couldn't see a doctor until I came back with test orders from my doctor in Indy."

A human being, coughing up blood. Imagine how scary that would be. Then imagine being laughed at and called names and ultimately denied treatment.

I understand that some people have a fear of the unknown. What is transgender? Transvestite? Transsexual? But what I don't understand is denying aid to a fellow human being while you point and snicker and act like you have the intelligence and good sense God gave a doorknob.

You're confused about transgender and transvestite and transsexual? Well, that wasn't the issue. The issue is a patient, a human being, coughing up blood and asking for help.

And being denied.

Ball Memorial Hospital and it's entire staff ought to be ashamed of themselves.