Former NYPD officer forced to wait outside St. Cloud hospital for treatment

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — A former New York Police Department sergeant, who thought he might have tuberculosis, was forced to stay outside while receiving treatment at the hospital.
 
Patrick Smith said he started having trouble with his lungs six months after the 9/11 attacks. He has something similar to black lung from the debris and dust from the Twin Towers.
 
Doctors wanted him to take a blood test and some miscommunication told him he might have tuberculosis and would need to get tested.
 
After Smith went to two blood centers, that were closed, he went to St. Cloud Regional Medical Center.
 
Smith said a nurse walked him outside and he thought it was until they got a room ready for him.
 
"I'm thinking you are keeping me outside until you get a room ready, because hospitals are ready for this," Smith said.
 
Smith waited outside with his mask and a nurse and doctor came outside to check on him before he was asked for his blood to be drawn outside.
 
"I'm standing up against the soda machine with a mask on going, "Why am I out here?" Smith said.
 
He decided to leave the hospital unaware of if he had tuberculosis or if he was infecting his family. The doctor would call two days later to say he didn't have tuberculosis.
 
Smith called the state, the Centers for Disease Control and the risk managers at the hospital to file a complaint.

Cox Media Group