Florida man not allowed to bring cutout of Trump to dialysis appointment
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PORT ST. LUCIE, FL (WPBF) — A Port St. Lucie dialysis patient wants to know why he can’t bring his emotional support life sized cutout of President Donald Trump with him to his dialysis facility during his treatments.
Nelson Gibson says his treatments can last about three and a half hours and his family is not allowed to sit with him that long, so when he first started getting treatments he brought an 8- by 10- inch photo of the president to comfort him. No one complained.
He says later on, his son gave him a miniature cardboard cutout of the him standing next to a photo of the president and again no one complained. In fact, he says some people even took photos of the photo.
“It just feels like bringing something from home to make you comfortable,” says Gibson.
Gibson says on Saturday he brought a life-sized cutout of the president and again, no one complained. But when he returned for treatment Tuesday the mood had changed.
“They told me it was too much and it wasn’t a rally,” says Gibson.
He says he didn’t say anything and just left.
His son, Eric Gibson, said he contacted the representatives at the facility to find out why the cutout was not allowed.
It was supposed to be an issue of safety infectious disease, which made no sense,” says Eric Gibson.
Nelson Gibson feels he’s being singled out. He says other patients also bring items for support.
“She brings in the bubble wrapping that you put in boxes and for three and a half hours she’s pop pop pop pop, that’s very nerve wreaking” says Gibson. “I don’t do anything like that I sit there quietly it sits near me and that’s it.”
WPBF 25 reached out to the facility, and they sent us this statement:
“While we cannot discuss any specific individual, we strongly support the ability of all our patients to express their views, which includes bringing reasonably sized items into our dialysis centers that do not create safety or infection control issues, or interfere with caregivers on the treatment floor,” said Brad Puffer, spokesperson for Fresenius Kidney Care.
“What I would really like to happen if for them not to infringe upon my father’s freedom of expression and speech and allow him to bring in the life-sized cardboard cutout that takes up less service area than a garbage can?” said Eric Gibson.
The Gibson family says they were surprised at what happened and they still don’t know when he will be going back for treatment.
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