Family Claims Mistreatment by RWJ Security

A Piscataway man has taken to the internet to protest the treatment his mother and he received at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital while attending to a dying family member.

John Urbaniak, 33, of Piscataway, says he and his mother, Fran, were at the hospital to accompany Angelo Romeo, Fran Urbaniak's 93-year-old father, who was hospitalized on Nov. 21, according to a report on NJ.com.

Romeo had a pacemaker installed on Nov. 22 and appeared to be recovering. However, on Nov. 23, Romeo took a turn for the worse after the Urbaniaks had stepped out to grab dinner, according to the report.

As John and Fran Urbaniak rushed to return to Romeo's hospital room, they entered the hospital through the emergency room, located below the hospital's critical care unit, checked in with a security guard and were buzzed through a door to a nearby elevator.

However, after they got into the elevator, a different security guard yelled to them that they couldn't use it, and reached in to stop the doors, bumping hands with John Urbaniak, who was holding the door for his mother, the report said. 

The guard sent the two to the hospital's main entrance, where they were met by additional guards, accused of assault for touching the other guard's hand, and lectured on how to conduct themselves in the hospital, according to the report.

By the time they got to the Critical Care unit, Romeo had passed. 

Urbaniak claimed that the guards were unapologetic for the delay, and that the family has not heard from the hospital's Patient Advocacy team.

A statement released Tuesday by the hospital extended its condolences to the family, and said that the family was "re-directed" to the lobby entrance from the emergency room, but not detained. 

The hospital has reached out to Urbaniak to discuss the matter, the statement said. 

"Based on our initial review, we have determined that while Mr. Urbaniak and his mother were re-directed from the Emergency Department entrance to the hospital’s main lobby entrance where visitors must check-in to access the Critical Cardiac Care Unit for security reasons, the family was not detained," the statement said. "Our security personnel took this action in the spirit of maintaining a safe and secure environment for all patients and visitors."

After speaking with the family and completing a review of what happened, the hospital will consider if changes to security protocol or additional staff training is needed, according to the hospital.