Posted on 08/17/2004 6:11:30 AM PDT by PBRSTREETGANG
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Whether it's blue or spotted or striped, the standard issue hospital gown is drafty and revealing. It's embarrassing for just about anyone who's spent a night in a medical center. But for modest Muslim women, it's an unthinkable indignity.
When officials at Maine Medical Center discovered many Muslim women were so ashamed they were canceling doctor visits, the hospital took action, redesigning the standard gown to provide extra coverage for patients who want it. The new hospital gowns have been available for several weeks.
"I have witnessed their misery and how bad they feel about it. They don't like it. They feel ashamed. It's very embarrassing," said Asha Abdulleh, a native of Kenya and a medical interpreter.
"This is a great example of a challenge raised by a specific community that can ultimately benefit all patients," said Dana Farris Gaya, the hospital's manager of interpreter and cross-cultural services.
The problem was acute for Maine Medical because 2,000 Somali refugees have come to Portland over the past few years and most of them are treated at the hospital's international clinic. As many as three out of 10 women were skipping their appointments, said Osman Hersi, a medical interpreter at the hospital.
Tracked down at home, the women whose religion and culture require them to be covered, described to interpreters the horror of being asked to wear the revealing gowns during outpatient procedures. Furthermore, they were publicly humiliated when they had to wait in a hallway in the radiology department.
On a recent morning after the new patient gowns were provided, Shamso Abdi appeared for her first hospital visit since arriving in Portland. She and her husband, Aden Ali, came to the United States from Mogadishu, Somalia. They lived in a small town in Kentucky, and then Columbus, Ohio, before coming to Portland.
Abdi, who was clothed in a dress, a sarong and a hijab, a scarf wrapped around her head, said she had canceled appointments in Columbus when she had to see male doctors and wear the standard drafty gown.
The gown created by the Portland hospital is long enough to provide more coverage of a patient's legs and has extra material to ensure that a patient's backside remains covered. Underneath, there's a wraparound sarong for even more coverage.
Abdi said she was grateful to see that Maine Medical had created a patient gown with her principles in mind.
"I'm so happy they made the change. I'm so happy that they considered us," she said, speaking through an interpreter.
Other hospitals are responding to the needs of Muslims. In southeastern Michigan, home to 300,000 Arab-Americans, the University of Michigan Medical Center is also addressing the issue of modesty.
The hospital is thinking of posting signs on the rooms of Muslim women warning male visitors and staff to check with a nurse's station before entering, said spokeswoman Krista Hopson in Ann Arbor, Mich.
As for the gown itself, Maine Medical isn't the only hospital to try to create a more acceptable version. Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey introduced vibrant colors and funky patterns five years ago.
Other hospitals and garment producers have tweaked the traditional design with snaps, Velcro and other changes.
Still, the standard-issue gown will never go away entirely. In some situations, in emergency rooms for example, it's more important to put the interests of doctors and nurses ahead of the interests of patients.
But for many situations, it makes sense to keep patients happy.
Asks Dr. Nat James of the hospital's international clinic: "Why didn't we think of this so long ago?"
The idea of changing the gown isn't completely new.
In 1999, designer Cynthia Rowley unveiled new gowns that offered a mid-calf length with a mock turtleneck and three-quarter length sleeves with snaps for women and drawstring pants, a short sleeve shirt and a matching robe for men.
That same year, Missouri state Rep. Sam Gaskill pushed a bill that would have required hospitals to provide patients with "dignity gowns," covering the body from neck to knee. The bill, prompted by Gaskill's own hospital experience, never made it out of committee.
FUNNY! When you run a welfare state, don't be surprised when you attract the dregs of the world. I LOVE IT! My buddy, currently in Iraqi, is from Maine and swears that he'll never go back.
Yep. Maine is the second poorest state in the nation. High taxes as well. Liberal government.......that should say it all.
Back in 2000, when our Governor then Senator Baldacci worked with Rep. Tom Allen and the Catholic Charities to bring in all these Somali's, Lewiston became their new home.
A lot of story's were coming out, but now it's been hushed. I wonder why.........
Also, the one terrorist hijacker on 9-11 stopped over night in Portland, Maine. Many of us wonder just who he talked to while he was here. Funny he stopped over in Portland, Maine, isn't it?
Tell your friend who is in Iraq Hello and thank him for his service!!!
But it's not a cult. Nope.
Having spent a month at Maine Med due to my son's condition I can say that the hospital bends over backwards for these people. They do not speak english, the ones that work there are rude, and a very small number have health insurance.
As far as having male staff check-in at the nurses station, that should go for everyone. We finally had to put a sign on the hospital room door that only doctors and nurses can some in.
Holy Moses! They are working at the hospital?
And I know they can't/won't/refuse to speak English. A Somali speaking teacher was brought into the High School to teach OUR kids how to speak Somali. Funny when WE go to a foreign country, WE are required to learn THEIR language, isn't it!
That is pathetic. I would ask one of them a question and they would just look at me and nod their head.
I feel bad for our couuntry with examples like the one you have just provided. We will be a non-country of just a bunch of people who all insist on their language as the language of choice and priority.
"I have witnessed their misery and how bad they feel about it. They don't like it. They feel ashamed. It's very embarrassing," said Asha Abdulleh, a native of Kenya and a medical interpreter.
And just how good is the health care system in Kenya or Somalia exactly? They should be damn grateful for any health-care they get!
Totally scary. We are half-way there..............
I reckon I know the reason why Muslims get their way so easily. Can you guess?
Re:
"I wonder what kind of doctors she saw in Somalia?"
"Witch"?
You really do not want to know. Somali women are usually genitally mutilated as girls. In Canada, African immigrants were *importing* butchers from the "old country" to do mass mutilations on their daughters. Then the gov't stepped in and stopped it - so the individual African immigrants just took their daughters themselves back home to have it done there.
Originally the US State Department was not going to admit any Somali women or girls who'd been mutilated, but then it reneged. Now there are mutilated women all over these immigrant communities, and you can be very sure they're going to try & pass the practice on.
If these women are missing appointments, it's probably *not* because the gowns are drafty, but because they are probably child abusers - and if anyone should be investigated, and have their daughters investigated, they should.
Aside from "Female circumcision", another ancient established Muslim tradition seems to be that if a family member decides to pitch Islam in favor of another Faith - say, Christianity for example, their family is EXPECTED not only to banish and ostrasize them forever, but to KILL them, if at all and as soon as possile.
Any defector from Islam, we are led to believe, becomes "fair game" to any Moslem, and it seems to be their sacred duty to kill the defector at the earliest opportunity, as well as whoever had the audacity to "prosthelytize" or "convert" them.
So will this venerable religious tradition now become "justifiable homicide" in PC Amerika, so as not to "offend" our Moslem guests and new "citizens"?
So don't you dare tell a Moslem about Jesus; you might be contributing to their untimely and violent demise... not to mention your own -
At the hands of the "Religion of Peace", don't you know?
Gotta "celibrate diversity" though, so don't expect their (or your) assassins to be held accountable for a "crime" any more than it's a "crime" to perform an abortion.
It's a "right", of course.
And in the case of Islam, it's apparently a "sacred right".
Isn't "diversity" wonderful?
Actually, my point was that she probably didn't even HAVE access to a doctor in Somalia.
I don't think so, Uncle Jaque. I feel like I 'woke up' into a bad dream........
Woman fired for eating bacon (Offending Muslims a Termination Offense in Orlando)
Apart from Hurricane Charley, we've been following a most intriguing story out of Orlando, Fla., where a woman says she was fired from her job because she ate a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at work, offending Muslim employees.
~sigh
I'm telling you, Uncle Jaque. I think it's too late for all of us...............
Heard about that a couple of days ago.
According to the story I heard, the outfit she worked for is owned about 80% by muslims, and the muslim-kosher rule was company policy. She apparently forgot, but the Religion of Peace cut her no slack at all, and showed all of us Dhimmies how "tolerance" really only flows in one direction.
In case any of us forgot.
I'll bet that one former Employee won't forget it any time soon.
For this to happen on American Soil is WAY over the top. Why the heck didn't they just hire their own kind, then. Why would they hire an American to begin with!
This might have been a reason to get rid of her.
9/11 was the biggest PR coup in history. They'd never get this stuff if it weren't for this war and liberal guilt.
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