Trump supporter prevented from bringing ‘emotional support’ cut out of president to his dialysis treatment
A Trump supporter has complained that he was prevented from bringing a cardboard cutout of the US president into a medical centre for ‘emotional support’.
Nelson Gibson claimed the life-sized picture of Donald Trump kept him company during his three-and-a-half hour kidney dialysis treatments.
But he says that officials at the Fresenius Kidney Care facility in Port St Lucie, Florida, decided the cardboard commander-in-chief was no longer welcome.
“They told me it was too much and it wasn’t a rally,” Mr Nelson told the West Palm beach area television station.
He said that no one had objected when he started bringing a small picture of Mr Trump with him to this treatments three times a week.
“It just feels like bringing something from home to make you comfortable,” he added.
Mr Gibson said that some people even took photos with fake president.
Officials only raised the issue on Tuesday, according to the family.
“It was supposed to be an issue of safety infectious disease which made no sense,” said Mr Gibson’s son Eric.
“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 lifesize cardboard cutout that takes up less service area than a garbage can.”
The kidney care centre denied they were trying to stop Mr Nelson from expressing his views.
“We strongly support the ability of all our patients to express their views, which includes bringing reasonably sized items into our dialysis centres that do not create safety or infection control issues, or interfere with caregivers on the treatment floor,” said the spokesman Brad Puffer said in a statement.
Two years ago another Trump supporter confessed that he saluted his own six-foot cardboard cutout of the president every day.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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