‘This is not a Trump rally.’ Dialysis center bans Florida man’s emotional support choice
You’ve heard of emotional support dogs, cats, squirrels and peacocks.
But one Florida man’s emotional support choice — a life-sized cardboard cutout of a smiling President Donald Trump giving the thumbs up — had to go from a Port St. Lucie dialysis center.
And now that man, 59-year-old Nelson Gibson, says he won’t go back to Fresenius Kidney Care where has been receiving his three-times-a-week dialysis treatments, and his family has taken to TV and social media to get his story out.
Gibson told WPTV he’d been bringing smaller items with Trump’s picture on them and that they were never a problem for the center. He’s a fan. His son Eric, who also lives in Port St. Lucie, told the station the Trump images, i help “distract his mind” from the rigors of dialysis treatments at the Florida center.
Which is why he made his dad a life-sized cardboard cutout of the 45th president.
He first carted the cardboard Trump to the center on Feb. 8.
‘This is not a Trump rally’
But a few days later, Gibson said he was told by a social worker at Fresenius that the emotional support Trump item could not stay this time. Gibson said the staffer told him “this is not a Trump rally.”
In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, the center said it’s a safety issue and that a large item such as this one could impede the staff’s line of sight and workflow, among other hazards.
“We strongly support the ability of all our patients to express their views, including bringing personal items into our clinics that provide comfort,” Robert Kossmann, chief medical officer for Fresenius Medical Care North America, said in the statement. “At the same time, we must maintain the safety and quality standards required within our clinics.”
In another statement, obtained by ABC affiliate WPBF 25 in West Palm Beach, Fresenius spokesman Brad Puffer added that patients can bring “reasonably sized items” that express their views to their treatment sessions but not those “that create safety or infection control issues, or interfere with caregivers on the treatment floor.”
Father and son don’t buy it.
“What I would really like to happen is for them not to infringe upon my father’s freedom of expression and speech and allow him to bring in the life-sized cardboard cutout that takes up less service area than a garbage can,” Eric Gibson told WPBF.
Executive order promoting kidney disease awareness
Nelson Gibson said part of the reason he surrounds himself with Trump’s image — and won’t go back to the center for treatment so long as this order stands — is because in July 2019 the president signed an executive order for a new initiative that includes promoting kidney disease awareness.
The president’s order adds an incentive to increase at-home dialysis, and to boost the number of kidneys available for transplantation and to encourage the development of an artificial kidney.
Keeping Trump by his side — even if it’s not the real deal — is another way to honor the president, Gibson believes, despite the serious consequences of skipping on treatments.
“He’s done so much for kidneys and dialysis and I feel people are very ungrateful,” Gibson told WPTV.
His son told the station that following Trump’s push toward at-home dialysis isn’t what he or his dad wants to do.
“He wants the sanctity and knowledge of a true medical professional” to provide the thrice-weekly dialysis treatment,” Eric Gibson told WPTV. That is something he, and his dad, are not prepared to do, he said.
Reaction on Facebook
On his Facebook page on Wednesday, Eric Gibson posted the WPTV report and said, “My 15 minutes of fame. Too bad it’s not under different circumstances. This is only the beginning.”
In the comments section many supported the Gibsons’ actions as “outstanding” or with “Trump 2020” postings.
But not everyone thought this was the best plan of action for his father’s health.
“15 minutes of fame? On another feed, you were pleading for your dad’s medical issues and lack of understanding. You really should delete this because it makes you look insincere with regards to [the] point you were trying to make,” read one on Friday.
The younger Gibson responded, “Obviously you have never heard the expression ... it’s what we call in life ... a joke ... .ever heard of it? I don’t know about you but I don’t spend my life being on TV. Do me a favor ... keep your lack of senseless comments to yourself.”
As of Saturday morning, President Trump, who is in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago resort for the Presidents’ Day weekend, has not tweeted about his cardboard emotional support doppelgänger.
