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NJ Man Claims Hospital Security Prevented Him From Saying Goodbye To Dying Grandfather

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- A family is questioning the actions of security personnel at a New Jersey hospital.

John Urbaniak, 33, of Piscataway claims security guards at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital prevented him and his mother from being with his grandfather as he died.

Urbaniak said he and his mother rushed to the hospital on Nov. 23 after getting a call that his 93-year-old grandfather had taken a turn for the worse a day after undergoing a heart procedure.

When they arrived at the hospital, Urbaniak said they were "stopped, harassed, and ultimately detained by hospital security for nearly 10 minutes" for trying to get on an elevator adjacent to the emergency room which his family had been using for three days.

"We begged them to let us just go up to see my grandfather and they told us, 'No, we weren't going anywhere,'" Urbaniak told 1010 WINS. "They interrogated us for several minutes, they lectured us on the proper way to walk into a hospital and to walk around a hospital. They had no compassion, they had no sympathy."

Urbaniak said by the time they reached his grandfather's room it was too late.

"The nurses and doctors were there in shock waiting for us. They turned around and said, 'We're sorry, but he just passed away,'" Urbaniak said. "I turned around to the security guards, who were all still standing there around me like we were a bunch of convicted criminals, and I said to them, 'You just took away the last couple of minutes that I could've had with my grandfather.'"

Urbaniak claims the head security guard responded, "This is not our fault. This is your fault."

The hospital released a statement promising an "exhaustive" review of the events and whether security staff needs improved training.

"To lose my grandfather was bad enough. For them to treat us the way they did and to deny our entire family the opportunity to see him and say goodbye is something I'm going to have to live with my whole life," Urbaniak said. "It's haunting me every day."

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