Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Forced to Leave Hospital

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Penguin

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

True!

I used to make sure we took the road with the most potholes on the way to the hospital if you were a dick. (Note being a dick cause you are in pain, and being a dick in general are two different things. Former: Sympathy; latter: karma)

[Armistead]

One of my subs, a mexican, had a green card, but got life threatening cancer. We all knew he was sick before, finally went to the hospital. They told him to go back to Mexico and seek treatment. He went back and died.

Thousands of americans die from being treated not being able to pay, last thing I would worry about is someone illegal.

[tater]

Originally Posted by Penguin

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

In general it is always good to be the "nice" patient in a medical office. Some subscribe to the "squeaky wheel" theory—and they do get treated, of course (and just as well as anyone else). They are hated by the staff and docs, however, and the staff will find ways to bump them to the end of the list for getting an appointment, and the docs will look for any excuse to "fire" them as patients.

My wife did a favor on call, and took a call from urgent care (a facility she is not on call for (she takes call only at the main hospital ER, not the UC facilities scattered around town). Was an 18 YO male with a 1mm stone. Not an emergency, she suggested pain meds while he passed the tiny stone. That was after 8pm at night. He gets an appt with her the next day at 2pm. That's amazingly fast given there are 1/2 the urologists in town that we need. She's booked weeks out for non-emergencies. The 18 YO's dad calls and starts yelling at the staff because they have to wait so long for an appt. he basically got the same day, and that's "too late" (she's on call, after all, so had emergency cases in the OR to take care of in the morning). The guy sis a big shot and is telling the scheduler he's a General. My wife's reaction is that she pays his salary, why does he think his rank means anything to her. The wimp (wife maintains young men are the least stoic patients by far, she said that there are 16YO girls giving birth with less whining than the guy with a 1mm stone) ended up not showing (wasting the time slot another patient would have liked to have had).

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?

SHe'd not know, frankly. She barely knows how the insurance works, much less legal status as it has nothing to do with how she treats patients. My guess is that an illegal is not covered by the insurance, regardless of marital status.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

True!

I used to make sure we took the road with the most potholes on the way to the hospital if you were a dick. (Note being a dick cause you are in pain, and being a dick in general are two different things. Former: Sympathy; latter: karma)

I am glad that medicine men know how to differ. I once threatened to beat up a doc because he didn't want to let me into the vehicle where my Frau was being treated. He reacted cool and explained himself to me calmly, so did the nearby officer - guess I wasn't the first guy with PTSD which they've seen...

Originally Posted by tater

. My wife's reaction is that she pays his salary, why does he think his rank means anything to her.

answer of the year!

Originally Posted by tater

The wimp (wife maintains young men are the least stoic patients by far, she said that there are 16YO girls giving birth with less whining than the guy with a 1mm stone) ended up not showing (wasting the time slot another patient would have liked to have had).

agreed, what a whiner!
However, you should see me suffer, if my woman is around to take care of me

Originally Posted by tater

SHe'd not know, frankly. She barely knows how the insurance works, much less legal status as it has nothing to do with how she treats patients. My guess is that an illegal is not covered by the insurance, regardless of marital status.

ok, thanks. When I travel into the US, I have an extra medical insurance (30 bucks for a month). Europe and the USA do accept their insurances in a mutual agreement, but I don't want to step in with my own money first as - I would have to as a non resident - and it could take months till you get the money back.

So far nothing worse happened than ramming a rod into my stomach (not deep), which I treted myself, so I don't have first hand experience - and I have a visa

I find it inhumane though that aspirine is not covered for the headaches that your beer causes...

[CaptainHaplo]

What I find amazing in this is that another hospital accepted her.....

[tater]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

What I find amazing in this is that another hospital accepted her.....

No kidding.

What sucks is that there is no way to write-off charity care from your taxes. If providers/hospitals could do this there would be an incentive to take some of these deadbeats.

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

What I find amazing in this is that another hospital accepted her.....

What amazes me is she wasn't shipped back to Mexico by Immigration.

[MaddogK]

So sad, this teaching hospital threw away a perfectly good 'free' guinea pig. Imagine all the interns who wont have a chance to practice their pelvic exams on her while she's under. They also wont have a body to try new surgical techniques on.

Tragic !

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by MaddogK

So sad, this teaching hospital threw away a perfectly good 'free' guinea pig. Imagine all the interns who wont have a chance to practice their pelvic exams on her while she's under. They also wont have a body to try new surgical techniques on.

Tragic !

What an absolutely disgusting comment.

[tater]

Practice doing stuff like pelvic exams (here in the US) is done with paid volunteers. The guys get $25 a pop for prostate exams I think, and the women get rather a lot more for a pelvic. I think it was $100 when my wife was in med school. She said the med students were in teams of 3-4, and so the woman would get 4 exams, and get paid $400. The guy she got for a prostate exam she said was kinda creepy—he'd guide them since he'd done it so many times.

For Residents, any patient is a case they can check off. As I said above, I bet she or her hubby were demanding a-holes, otherwise I bet they'd have done the case (some resident would have, anyway).

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

What an absolutely disgusting comment.

I was kind of hoping it was a really funny joke that I just didn't get.

[MaddogK]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

What an absolutely disgusting comment.

Whats so disgusting about it ? The hospital has to make up the money somehow, she probably wont be paying for the surgery, paid volunteers cost money. She's free to go back to her home country for treatment, I'm sure her countrymen won't have a problem footing the bill.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

I was kind of hoping it was a really funny joke that I just didn't get.

Rape and vivisection isn't really funny.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Rape and vivisection isn't really funny.

That's kind of my point. I thought it maybe it was an allegory for some kind of social commentary or.....I don't know. Like I said, I didn't get it.

[tater]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Rape and vivisection isn't really funny.

Where was vivisection mentioned? Residents "practice" on everyone who gets surgery. Had her procedure been done at a teaching hospital, a Resident would have been scrubbed in at the very least, and likely would have done the case (maybe the chief, with a junior resident, and an attending nearby in case something went wrong). I remember when my wife was a 1st year surgery resident and she was the neurosurgeon on call for the only level 1 trauma center in the state of NM*. Talk about a bad day to get hit in the head... (she'd agree, she was utterly clueless, and it was her very first rotation—luckily she could call her dad (a retired brain surgeon) to ask for help if needed).

If you consider that statement to be about "vivisection" then stay away from University Hospitals

The pelvic exam thing was clearly a reference to the recent cases in NZ (?) that were on the news.




*I do mean "the" singular. She was only to call the attending when he was needed (and god help the resident who called him for what he'd think was "no good reason.")