AITA for taking my girlfriend home from the hospital?

A Reddit user found himself in a difficult situation when his girlfriend, who lives in a shelter, was rushed to the emergency room after falling ill. Due to shelter restrictions, she couldn’t return until the morning, so he broke the house-sitting rules set by his family and took her to the house to care for her overnight.

Now, he’s facing backlash from his parents for breaking the rules and wonders if his decision was justified given the emergency. Read the full story below for more details.

‘ AITA for taking my girlfriend home from the hospital?’

I (19M), have been house-sitting for the week and one of my rules was not to have my girlfriend (21F) over to the house. She currently lives in a shelter. Last night, she was feeling very ill and ended up blacking out on the floor of the shelter.

She was rushed to the emergency room via ambulance, and I’m the only contact for her since she has no family or friends. I showed up last night around 11pm, and she was discharged from the hospital around 5am after concluding she didn’t need an overnight stay at the hospital.

Her shelter doesn’t allow anyone to enter under any circumstances after 7pm nor allow anyone to enter before 8am, so I opted to take her to the house where I could make sure she was getting proper care and treatment after a long night of sitting in a busy emergency room.

This morning I was met with extremely angry parents who disregarded the lack of normal circumstances and frowned upon my choices. Of course, under normal circumstances I would’ve followed the rules. AITA for breaking those rules under an unforeseen emergency?

Edit: I’m house sitting for a relative unpaid. I assume I made the wrong wording choice since thats largely seen as an occupancy. My bad. Regarding why she isn’t allowed here, isn’t due to her being unliked or having done something wrong.

It’s a simple their house, their rules. I do not have my own place as I stay with my parents while I’m in college. She’s currently living in a shelter due to a lack of financial resources from running away from a very, very rough situation back home and is looking to change her life for the better.

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

JeepersCreepers74 −  NAH. You did your best under difficult circumstances. That said, I don’t think your parents or the homeowners are wrong for thinking “hey, you had ONE rule and you couldn’t keep it?”

Your GF’s life sounds pretty dramatic–and 100% dependent on you to pick up the pieces when emergencies happen. I’m not sure that’s a fair position for a 19 year old to be in.

kaijuumafoo1 −  Wtf is wrong with all of you? It was a godamn emergency situation and she needed to rest. Anyone who values rules over understanding that is a bad person. I mean the actual audacity to say “you should’ve gone to a 24 hour restaurant” after just getting out of the hospital??

Ya I know I want to go sit in a s**tty booth for 3 hours after an ordeal like that, sounds very good for recovery /s. And of course the complete lack of empathy for the homeless that I expect from Reddit. This site ruins my faith in humanity a little more every day

JessiMcManis27 −  I think maybe you should have called them and told them about the situation and asked and if they didn’t make the exception take her to your own house.

mousepallace −  NTA. You made a conscientious and caring decision in an emergency situation. You have nothing to feel guilty about.

pennywhistlesmoonpie −  NTA. Normally it’s a huge no-no to blatantly disobey someone else’s house rules, but I’m just not sure what else OP was supposed to do with his ill girlfriend who had just been in the ER.

Someone with more life experience or resources may have gotten a hotel room, called a friend, but I agree with him that the exigent circumstances merited breaking the rules and helping a human being who had nowhete else to turn. Was he supposed to have her sleep in the car? People need to have a tiny bit of empathy.

Immediate_Sand_9350 −  Some of these replies are wild. ‘Take her to a diner’ yeah I’m sure that’s the best place for her, having suffered a panic attack bad enough to be hospitalised for and spent the night in hospital.

You know how my relatives would react in a similar situation? “Oh that sounds awful! How’s she feeling? I know we said no visitors but no worries as this was an emergency. I hope she gets better soon.”

In fact, they would probably be angry if I * hadn’t * taken partner to theirs and looked after them. As far as I’m concerned, any other reaction (barring specific circumstances like she’s stolen from them in the past etc) is weird, unempathetic and values rules over people.

NTA for looking after your girlfriend and taking a reasonable course of action in the circumstances. Ideally, you would have taken her back to yours/your parents but if you were too tired for the drive you did the right thing in keeping you both safe.

faithnfury −  NTA. Man y’all out here in the comments are assholes. It was an emergency. And it’s not like she was there for that long or had caused any issues.

No_Read_4327 −  Info: why didn’t you bring her to your parental house instead?

blueeyedwolff −  INFO: Why isn’t your gf allowed at your parent’s home?

avg_student −  NTA – The value of human life and well-being must always outweigh property rights. Anyone arguing otherwise is displaying a serious lack of empathy. It’s important to remember that homelessness and health crises can happen to anyone—yes, even to those placing rules and regulations above a person’s basic safety.

One day, you could find yourself or a loved one in the same position as OP’s girlfriend, vulnerable and in need of compassion. Prioritizing property over people is not only heartless, but it also ignores the reality that we all share the same fundamental human vulnerabilities.