By Emily Washburn | Daily Citizen
Multi-state health conglomerate Common Spirit refused to serve a Colorado Springs family after parents objected to a doctor’s inappropriate and ideologically driven questions.
Melissa and her husband, Carlos, are no strangers to the medical system’s disregard for parent’s rights. The devout Christian couple shuttled their four children to doctor’s appointments in several different states during Carlos’ more than 20-year military career.
So, when thirteen-year-old Ricardo needed a physical to play football, the couple gave him a heads up.
“I just asked, ‘Hey, if they ask you if they want us to leave the room, are you comfortable with that?’” Melissa explained.
Years earlier, in Virginia, doctors had asked one of their daughters if she was sexually active or used drugs — after asking Melissa to leave the room.
“She didn’t really know what to say,” she recalled her daughter’s hesitance to answer questions alone. “[But] our children [are used] to respecting their elders, so she just said, ‘Okay.’”
When Ricardo said he would be uncomfortable talking to the doctor alone, Carlos and Melissa helped him prepare to say so. Forewarned and forearmed, they hoped their respectful, shy son would feel free to be honest in a way their daughter had not.
Melissa and Carlos’ forethought paid off; the doctor, a Common Spirit employee, asked them to leave the room before she’d finished Ricardo’s physical.