Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Forced to Leave Hospital

[Gerald]

A Texas hospital is under fire for allegedly telling a surgical patient she had to leave the hospital immediately because she was an illegal immigrant.

Maria Sanchez, 24, told the Houston Chronicle that she had been at John Sealy Hospital -- part of the University of Texas Medical system -- for six days when a doctor told her on Jan. 12 that she should go to Mexico to have surgery on her growing spinal tumor. The hospital discharged her that day, the paper reported.

Sanchez's husband, Luis Aguillon, a legal U.S. resident, told the paper his wife is now getting medical care in Houston. But the couple's case is sparking a nationwide ethics debate.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/08...ration-status/


Note: Published February 08, 2011

[Ducimus]

I'm gonna side with the hospital. Nobody likes a freeloader.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

I'm gonna side with the hospital. Nobody likes a freeloader.

I do agree.

[gimpy117]

yes, If she was just off the table or about to die it would be unethical...but im betting she wasn't about to drop dead any second.

[Gargamel]

Having been in the hospital for 6 days means she no longer falls under EMTALA. That law was written to cover emergency treatment and labor. Hence the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. If the Doctors deemed her stable, and in no immediate life threat, then her inability to pay (assumed reason) would allow them to discharge her. Her transfer to another hospital would only be illegal if they sent her by ambulance without having a physician accept her at the receiving facility.

While the law does specificy citizenship and inability to pay are not reasons to deny treatment, she does not fall under this law because she was (assumed) in a fully stable, yet chronic, condition.

Aguillon said after his wife's discharge the couple visited at least five hospitals and three clinics before finally moving to Houston, where she qualified for care and is now being treated at Ben Taub General Hospital .

Clearly it was a failure to pay issue, else those other 8 facilities would be in the same spot. If this person wasn't an illegal immigrant, this would have never made the news.

[bookworm_020]

Maybe she could have washed the sheets and she would be allowed to stay?

[Skybird]

If you want to benefit from the system, you have to contribute to the system. By paying legal taxes. If she is an illegal alien, she doesn't pay taxes. When I go there as a tpourist, even then my treatement in case of an emergencya would be formally compensated - both by agreements between states, and financial agreements between the local service and my health insurrance.

I take it that the release of the woman was no immediate and direct threat to her life. So why should the American community pay for her if she invests no financial return in form of taxes and does not pay for her treatement either?

[tater]

Even if illegals "pay taxes" they don't make enough to actually pay taxes enough to contribute. Course that's true of the majority of the population. BTW, people from Mexico show up at the ER all the time, and sometimes affluent mexicans who fly here to go to the ER.

Life in a border State.

[CCIP]

Yep, had it been an immediate emergency treatment, I would've obviously been sympathetic to the patient. But in this case she is in no position to complain.

[tater]

Why would she want care in the US when she's a Mexican national, and Mexico has national healthcare?

[tater]

Bet she was obnoxious to the staff.

At university hospitals, many would just get operated on since the Residents would want the case. The ones that get booted like this are usually a-holes.

My wife turned a guy in to get booted in just this way when she was a Resident, but only after he was a demanding a-hole to the nurses. Next thing he knew, it wasn't a nurse, but the social-worker informing him he could have his prostate cancer removed back home.

[MothBalls]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

I'm gonna side with the hospital. Nobody likes a freeloader.

+1

Being the one who pays higher insurance premiums and taxes to pay for freeloaders, I say kick her to the curb. Is she going to pay for the 6 days she was there or are the rest of us paying for it?

That fact she was an illegal alien has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of US citizens who are refused treatment every day because they don't have the means or insurance to pay for a procedure and it doesn't make headlines.

Sorry for sounding like a bitter old man, but facts is facts and I get tired of hearing how bad we treat everyone else when we can't even take care of ourselves.

[Gerald]

The border must be drawn, and this is not about receiving a poor treatment.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by tater

Bet she was obnoxious to the staff.

At university hospitals, many would just get operated on since the Residents would want the case. The ones that get booted like this are usually a-holes.

My wife turned a guy in to get booted in just this way when she was a Resident, but only after he was a demanding a-hole to the nurses. Next thing he knew, it wasn't a nurse, but the social-worker informing him he could have his prostate cancer removed back home.

interesting aspect
bet she didn't know two important rules in life: never piss off a bartender and never piss off hospital staff

So you or your wife certainly can answer me this:
if her husband had a health insurance which covers his wife, would the hospital be required to treat her? Or would the insurance be void anyway, due to her illegal status?

[Jimbuna]

Non life threatening therefore nothing unethical IMHO.