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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Restaurant bars husband of woman with H1N1

By: Bruce Owen

Posted: 09/9/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

A Pinawa man has filed a human-rights complaint against a Seven Sisters Falls restaurant for being denied service after his wife was diagnosed with H1N1 flu.

"I don't want any harm to come to them," Floyd Carlson said Tuesday. "I just want them to know what they did was wrong."

"He just wants an apology," said Carlson's wife, Roberta. "If they do it to one person, they'll do it to another. They're diagnosing people."

Roberta, 53, said she was hit by the flu June 15 and within days found herself at Health Sciences Centre hooked up to a ventilator and multiple intravenous bags.

"I don't remember any of it," she said. "I was in a coma."

She was discharged Aug. 5.

Floyd, 65, said that on June 26 he stopped in Seven Sisters for his morning coffee and toast.He had barely stepped through the door when the proprietor stopped him.

"She said, 'Floyd, you can't come in here until we find out what's going on with your wife.' "

Carlson, a trucker, walked out the door in disbelief. He's only recently filed a complaint against the restaurant with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission.

Tina Lehman of Seven Sisters Motel and Restaurant said she has apologized to Carlson, but added she stands by her decision.

"I've got nothing to hide," she said. "I just thought I was making the right decision. There's a lot of people in this town who agree with me.

"I feel bad about the whole situation," Lehman said. "He's a good customer. But I have to look after the welfare of my other customers."

Roberta added she thinks she caught H1NI days earlier when she was visiting with friends who had just returned from Mexico and complained they weren't feeling well. She said because she has asthma, it hit her hard and attacked her lungs.

"My family say the doctors told them it could have gone either way, but my son said, 'My mom is such a strong-minded person, if she was called she probably wouldn't go.' "

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 9, 2009 A3

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