Hospitals Barred Her From Visiting Him : Judge Rules Against Alleged Wife of Dying Man

A woman who failed to convince two Anaheim hospitals that she was the wife of a dying man--and that three other “wives” were imposters--had equally bad luck with an Orange County Superior Court judge, who ruled her a loser Thursday in her $1-million lawsuit.

Judge Robert C. Todd said that Gloria Barron, 53, was never the legal wife of Thomas Barron and that employees of Anaheim Memorial Hospital and Humana Hospital West Anaheim were entitled to bar her from visiting the man she swore was her husband as he lay dying of a heart attack in July, 1984.

Had No Rights, Judge Ruled

“Never having been legally married, plaintiff had no enforceable rights violated by the defendants,” according to Todd’s ruling, which was filed Thursday.

Gloria Barron, who now lives in Mira Loma, said she was “fine” but “disappointed” after she learned of Todd’s ruling.

“I was legally married, but there was some dissension about his divorce being final when I married him,” she said. “But I was married. I felt married, and he was with me all the time. He was never apart from me from the time I got married.”

Gloria and Thomas Barron were wed in a Las Vegas ceremony in 1981, she said. Three years later, Thomas, 57, suffered a massive heart attack. It was July 11, and Gloria rushed him to Humana. He was later transferred to Anaheim Memorial, where he died July 23.

It was in the intensive care wards of both hospitals that Gloria’s nightmare began, she said.

“There were three other people claiming to be (Thomas Barron’s) wives, and other women, (were) showing up at the hospital, claiming to be his girlfriends,” one hospital attorney said during the trial.

Because of the confusion surrounding Thomas Barron’s marital status, both hospitals appointed his son, David Barron, 38, as family spokesman. It was David Barron’s decision to keep all visitors from the dying man in his last days. And it was he who also made funeral arrangements for his father.

Emotional Damage Claim Filed

In 1984, Gloria Barron filed suit against both hospitals, claiming that she deserved $1 million in compensation for emotional damage she suffered at the hands of employees at both hospitals.

But attorneys for the institutions argued during the four-day trial that nurses and hospital administrators were simply following proper policy by appointing David Barron as spokesman and giving him power over his father’s visiting rights.

Someone, they argued, had to control the “chaos” in the hospital waiting rooms, where a varied cast of women and men showed up claiming to be Barron’s relatives and demanding to see the sick man.

After a trial that ended Feb. 11, Todd took the matter under submission. On Thursday, he sided with the hospitals.

Steven R. Odell, attorney for Anaheim Memorial, said Thursday that Todd’s ruling was a vindication.

“It (the ruling) showed that the hospital protocol and the nurses following it met the standard of care in California and the nation,” Odell said. “This is the way it was done and will always be done. The nurses did a fine job.”

Judge Believed ‘Our Nurses’

Todd “believed our nurses about the confusion in the waiting room, that the nurses were concerned about the patient’s condition and did not have the time or expertise to deal with the problems in the waiting room,” said Glenn H. Clark, an attorney representing Humana.

“Their concern was the patient,” Clark said. “His condition demanded that there be peace and tranquillity at his bedside and in the waiting room of the intensive care unit.”

Gloria Barron’s attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday, but she said she will appeal the verdict.

“I’m disappointed,” Barron said Thursday. “I feel that my husband was kidnaped, and I don’t feel there’s any justice.”