Jury mulls hospital deportation case
STUART (AP) – The case against a South Florida hospital that quietly chartered a plane and sent a seriously brain injured illegal immigrant back to Guatemala over the objections of his family and legal guardian was in the hands of a jury Thursday.
Health care and immigration experts across the country are closely watching the court action. Lawyers say it may be the first of its kind and underscores the dilemma facing hospitals with patients who require long-term care, are unable to pay and don’t qualify for federal or state aid because of their immigration status.
Why should Martin Memorial Medical Center have to pay for a lifetime of care “for injuries we didn’t even cause?” hospital attorney Scott Machaud asked the six-member jury during closing arguments of the monthlong trial. He said the hospital saved the life of 37-year-old Luis Jimenez and provided the uninsured man with $1.5 million worth of care, only to be unfairly hit with a lawsuit by his cousin, who’s his guardian.
“Paging Alice in Wonderland, where up is down and down is up and no good deed goes unpunished,” Machaud exclaimed.
However, under federal law, Martin Memorial was required to care for Jimenez until someone else would take him. Because of his immigration status, no one else would. But hospitals that receive Medicare reimbursements are required to provide emergency care to all patients and must provide an acceptable discharge plan once the patient is stabilized.
The lawsuit seeks nearly $1 million to cover the estimated lifetime costs of his care in Guatemala, as well as damages for the hospital’s alleged “false imprisonment” and punitive damages to discourage other medical centers from taking similar action.