By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Saudi Arabian King Abdullah is causing quite the stir during his time in New York Presbyterian Hospital by taking over its entire VIP floor, according to the New York Post.
The 86-year-old king, who checked into the hospital last week for surgery to treat a blood clot that complicated a slipped spinal disc.
"Patients are grumbling that they have been moved out to other areas of the hospital, and that despite there being a number of unused VIP treatment rooms, they can't be moved into them because they are all reserved for the king of Saudi Arabia," the Post quoted a family member of one patient as saying.
Witnesses told the paper that the monarch's security detail has been a presence both inside and outside the hospital.
"I would like to reassure all Saudi nationals as well as everyone who expressed concern over His Majesty's health that the [he] is doing extremely well and is currently undergoing a physiotherapy and rehabilitation program as recommended by his medical team," Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah said in an interview Sunday with Saudi state media.
These complaints come just a day after it was revealed that Abdullah had at one point encouraged the United States to "cut the head off the snake" by launching military attacks to defeat Iran’s nuclear weapon program, according to leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.