A Boston hospital was found to have violated the rights of a couple by subjecting them to search and surveillance when they entered the health facility.

In the Nov. 3 ruling the judge found that Amy Reed and Hooman Noorchashm’s First Amendment rights were violated when Brigham and Women’s Hospital searched Noorchashm and had a security officer accompany him while his wife received treatment, according to cancerletter.com.

The couple had led a national campaign against power morcellation, a surgical procedure that was widely used until the FDA began restricting it and insurance companies stopped covering it over the last two years. In their campaign, the couple publicly criticized top leadership at the hospital for “stonewalling” the couple.

Noorchashm was searched on Nov. 2 when his wife, Reed, went to the hospital for an urgent surgery. Both Noorchashm and Reed are physicians.

The hospital’s patient policy states that they have a right to a “prompt response to all reasonable requests and a right to personal dignity and to a reasonable extent, privacy.” The couple’s complaint claims the hospital violated this policy.

The decision for the search was made by Ron Walls, the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Brigham and Women’s.

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