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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Security disrupts visit with dying dad
Man handcuffed, cops called during late hospital stop
A man was handcuffed and escorted out of Seven Oaks General Hospital by police late Friday after he refused to leave his elderly father's bedside.
Mike Vogiatzakis, 45, went to visit his 74-year-old father who is suffering from congestive heart failure and renal failure around 11 p.m. Friday. Vogiatzakis, who manages Voyage Funeral Home in East Kildonan, said he didn't have time during the day to see his ailing father, and went to visit him following a Manitoba Moose game.
That's when Vogiatzakis alleges a nurse told him he was trespassing on hospital property and would have to leave immediately. He refused, and the nurse phoned security.
"I said my dad is on the verge of passing away and I want to sit here with my dad," Vogiatzakis said. "Being in the profession that I'm in, I know that time is precious. The time I spend with my dad is precious."
Vogiatzakis said the situation escalated when two security guards allegedly "manhandled" him, throwing him on the ground and handcuffing his wrists. He said about 30 hospital staff witnessed the incident, and that security guards took him to another room and called police.
Vogiatzakis said police escorted him out of the hospital and put him in the back of the cruiser car. He said officers dropped him off at the funeral home and did not charge him with any offence.
"I didn't do anything to deserve this," Vogiatzakis said. "I was treated like a criminal."
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokeswoman Heidi Graham said officials are aware of the incident and confirmed police were called. "We take the safety of patients and our staff very seriously," Graham said. "It's priority No. 1."
Graham would not comment any further.
Vogiatzakis denies threatening staff and said he did not cause any disturbance by visiting his father.
"I wasn't causing any trouble," he said. "I just wanted to spend some quiet time with my dad."
The incident caused Vogiatzakis further grief on Saturday afternoon when he alleges hospital security told him he wasn't allowed to see his dad when he returned. He said the situation was resolved after he spoke with hospital officials.
Vogiatzakis is still incensed by the way he was treated.
"I said, 'What do you want me to do, roll my dad out to the parking lot so I can visit him there?'"
jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 11, 2010 A9
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