A woman from Honduras, who has been in the US for over 17 years and whose visa is legal, is at risk of being deported for lack of insurance. She recently awoke from a coma in an Arizona hospital after complications resulting from delivering her baby. Now the hospital is trying to send her back to Honduras, where she has no family. Let me reiterate, this woman is IN THIS COUNTRY LEGALLY.
From the article:
McBride said that at St. Joseph’s, where about $25 million in charity care was applied to uncovered patients in 2007, all options are discussed with patients who need long-term care. Facilities such as community health centers, which provide a sliding scale for payment, are available.
“If they can’t afford that, typically, is when we’re forced to send a patient back to their home country, where they’re usually eligible for health care. This is not an easy decision at all,” McBride said. McBride said about eight patients a month are sent to their home countries.
Curtin said that Iscoa, now the mother of seven children, has been taken out of the intensive-care unit. Iscoa has a brain injury, non-functioning kidneys and is being tube-fed. A neurological assessment has not been done, Curtin said.
Iscoa has been in the country legally since 1998. She works in a carpentry shop and as a house cleaner.
A family spokeswoman said earlier that St. Joseph’s was planning to transfer Iscoa to a facility called Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that treats indigent patients.
Don’t read the comments at the source unless you’re a masochist. The complete lack of empathy those people have for this woman, or for people in general, is pathological.
UPDATE: There’s a fund set up to help with medical expenses. Here’s the info. Donate if you can, and send the link around if you can’t. Thanks!
3 Responses to “Deported For Lack Of Insurance”