Today's post comes from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Dispatches.
It is the story of Luis Jimenez. A Guatemalan man who got hit by car in Fla. He suffered brain damaged, however when he ran up the bill, the hospital decided it was best to sent him back to Guatemala. Luis was undocumented see, so he was voiceless and he was just flown back to "where he belongs." This practice is widely known as "patient dumping," though hospitals rather call it "medical repatriation". At the end it's the same. Bottom line is, let others take care of you, you're not our problem. There was a similar story in the La Times a while back but not about illegal immigrants but about homeless people.
In this harsh economic times where the anti immigrant sentiment is growing by wide strides in the country, it has become an easy way out for hospital and physicians to rid of people that obviously have no means of paying for medical expenses. Of all the United States, probably the staunchest supporter of this issue is Arizona which leads in this category.
Luis was left with the mental capacity of a nine year old after the accident which was incurred by a drunk driver. Funny thing is the story on Dispatches at no moment mentions what ever happened to the drunk driver who hit Luis. Instead of investing or rather forfeit millions of dollar caring for Luis, the hospital flew him home to Guatemala and is currently being taken care of by his elderly mother which by the way the only "medicine" she can provide him with is Alka-Seltzer, that's all she can afford.
The New York Times has uncovered many other cases similar to Luis'. The law states any medical procedure, especially of this magnitude, the patient's or the guardians of the patient need to have consent. What happen to Luis was illegal. The hospital however did everything within their power to get rid of him. Now, some lawyer's on behalf of Luis have filed a lawsuit. Hopefully there is a verdict in time for Luis. The case is sure to help other people in similar situations in the future.
The way I see
it, at what moment in time did we become a society that stopped caring
about the plight of the voiceless. At what moment in time did it become
easier to use a specific group of people as a scapegoat and feel is o.
k. I don't know what the answer is if there's even one at all or not. I
don't see turning the back on people that somehow are the fabric of our
society is the answer. I know this is a thorny issue and most people at
this moment would like to see all people like Luis begone, be it
terminally ill or not, for after all, they don't belong here in the
first place.
Rogelio Gómez Hernández.
If we can't work you like a dog then why should you be here? That's sarcasm of course. It reminds me of the 1930s now. After the Roaring Twenties a time of great excess the depression came and along with renewed interest in the KKK, now we have Minute Men and people who claim they care about America. Yeah whatever people care about their cheap food, cheap clothes, and slave labor until time gets tough and then they get concerned about how this stuff happens and then they realize it's some easy scapegoat some person who has no rights, so you have what happened above. ---Browne
Posted by: browne | 07/15/2009 at 02:03 AM
Hey Browne. Things are already spiraling down by the moment. As I was listening to NPR's All Thing's Considered today
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106658642
Now, the next thing is going to be to push an agenda against the children of illegal immigrants. Pretty soon we could have in the ballot's having to decide whether children born in the USA are considered citizens or not.
The main purpose of this will be so that legally in the state of Ca. the health care system is no longer under obligation to treat what up to this moment are considered Americans.
Posted by: Rogelio Gomez | 07/15/2009 at 05:56 PM
Rogelio, I've discussed that initiative with someone in the know and she says there's no way in hell that they could revoke rights from children born in the United States from illegal immigrant parents. The reason is because they are U.S. citizens, and by revoking their rights granted to them as a U.S. citizen it puts us on a slippery slope toward revoking the rights of any citizen for arbitrary reasons.
If it ever passes, much less gets on the ballot, it'll be overturned handily.
Posted by: Spokker | 07/18/2009 at 10:50 PM
Apparently, from what I've heard. Which by the way, I should look into it to make sure it is indeed the case, those rights from the 14th amendment were put in there because in the past people of African descent were not considered American citizens and therefore could not vote. So, as I've heard this was the original intent of this and not in a literal way, so they say. If you heard the piece from NPR, the man with the initiative would like this to be clarified and therefore annul citizenship to children of illegal aliens. I agree with you. I mean it's like the country, the society started having bastard children. Sounds harsh, but that;s what it would amount to. Like I said, I don't know what the answer to all of this would be, but it just doesn't seem right.
Posted by: Rogelio Gomez | 07/18/2009 at 11:11 PM
The next argument is, do we want children starving to death because of a situation they could not control? The child did not choose to come here and be born. It would be politically unpopular (and morally wrong) to allow children to die in the streets because they couldn't get assistance.
That's some image, isn't it?
Posted by: Spokker | 07/19/2009 at 07:31 AM
The US gov't would never have anyone die on the streets in public. They'll let them die behind the gates of the projects, far, far, far, away from people who use eco bags to buy 50 dollar organic pasta and have their electric cars parked by a guy working 12 hours a day with no benefits and solely for tips.
Don't underestimate what this country will do when times get economically hard. Right after slavery there were no Jim Crow laws, that got added about years later during a particular rough economic patch? You think Japanese Americans thought they would be getting interned? You think Mexican-Americans who had been here would think they would get kidnapped by their own gov't and dropped of in the middle of Mexico?
Browne
Posted by: browne | 07/19/2009 at 07:48 AM
See, that's exactly the point Browne, I don't underestimate what could happen because time and time throughout history as you have pointed out, ad=s the old saying goes, difficult times call for difficult measures, though by the looks of it, they haven't been difficult measures. They have been done with out thinking twice. I hope no one reading this will get offended by this, I have a saying meant to be sarcastic, everything wrong in this country is Mexicans fault. 9/11 Mexicans fault, Katrina Mexicans fault, the financial crisis Mexican's fault, not Bernard Madoff. That's what it feels like sometimes, that people, illegal people, especially from Mexico are being targeted and thought of as if they were gone the country's problems would be gone as well.
Posted by: Rogelio Gomez | 07/19/2009 at 07:56 AM