Celebrity parents … Jay-Z and Beyonce. Photo: Getty Images
New York: The couple were visiting their twin daughters in the neonatal intensive care unit at Lenox Hill Hospital on Friday night, as they have done daily since the babies' premature birth on December 28. But when they tried to leave the sixth floor unit to go home to Brooklyn at about 11 pm, the new mother, Rozz Nash-Coulon, recalls, a burly security guard suddenly blocked their way.
The familiar area outside the neonatal unit had been transformed: partitions had been put up, the maternity ward windows were completely covered, and even the hospitals' security cameras had been taped over . Guards with Secret Service-style earpieces roamed the floor.
''We were told we could walk no further,'' Ms Nash-Coulon said. And when she and her husband, Neil, demanded an explanation, she said that the guard claimed ''Well, they're handling hazardous materials,'' even as a large group of people screened from view were passing through the area.
It was just the first of a series of indignities that they and several other patients say they experienced at the weekend, as Lenox Hill Hospital tried to protect the privacy of Beyonce and Jay-Z, whose daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, was born there on Saturday.
At one point, another father, Edgar Ramirez, 25, said security guards kept him out of the neonatal unit for three hours while his wife and newborn were waiting for him. At another point on Saturday, a guard declared that ''the floor is on lockdown,'' Ms Nash-Coulon said, and told her that if she left the neonatal unit, she would not be allowed back in to see her babies.
''We have been in control of the security detail and we remain in control of it,'' Anne Silverman, a spokeswoman for Lenox Hill Hospital, said.
''The security plan was designed not to limit access to patient care areas.''
She said the hospital had received no formal complaint about security measures, and denied reports that the couple had paid more than $US1 million to rent and redecorate a wing of the hospital as a private labour and delivery suite. But she noted that Lenox Hill has ''reinstated executive suites'', subject to availability, and at a price she would not specify.
In a statement, Beyonce and Jay-Z said Blue Ivy's ''birth was emotional and extremely peaceful, we are in heaven''. They did not address complaints from other patients.
A doctor who has often delivered babies at Lenox Hill, but insisted he not be named, said that two months ago he learnt from personnel at the hospital that a sixth-floor area was being rebuilt as a private suite, at no cost to the hospital. He said the suite was rumoured to be for Beyonce.
The New York Times
