Posted on 10/04/2004 3:49:27 AM PDT by television is just wrong
Tragic Trip Newton Theresa Freed
Video Included
Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004
After a fall of more than 40-feet, Mexican medical teams refuse to help a Kansas man. It was a trip to discover his heritage but instead turns tragic.
The 23-year-old was going to Mexico to meet his birth father for the first time. He had been living with his adopted parents his entire life in Newton.
Many people take for granted the quality of emergency medical care in the United States. It’s one mistake a Newton family will never make again.
It’s a lesson about health care that 21-year-old Olivia Sanchez learned the hard way. Olivia and her 23-year-old brother Ricardo recently traveled to Mexico to meet their biological family. A Newton family adopted them at the ages of 6 and 8.
During the trip, the brother and sister went swimming at the family’s ranch. That’s when Ricardo started climbing a cliff.
“I was watching him go up and down the rocks,” says Olivia Sanchez. “He made it up once, then he came back down. Then he went back up and it was the second time that he fell.”
Ricardo plummeted 40-feet to the ground. He was rushed to a Mexican hospital with severe head injuries. The physicians would not treat him, because he didn’t have health insurance.
“When you have a head injury, those first few hours are real critical and it seems like we got the information too late,” says Greg Sanchez, Ricardo’s father.
Ricardo was eventually transferred to another hospital, where he was put on life support and then a week later died.
It’s a tragedy that the family says should’ve never happened.
The United States federal law mandates access to emergency care regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.
“Anybody that’s thinking about going on a trip over there, I’d think twice again about it,” says Greg Sanchez.
Family say Ricardo was a very caring and loving man. He had plans to marry his fiancé in just a few years. A funeral will be held this Friday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Newton. The burial will follow at St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Why did they refuse? I'll be holding my breath waiting for the US government to say something.
What a country! (NOT). We live in THE greatest country the world has ever known. Mexico sickens me by this (in)action.
They refused totreat him because he had no medical insurance.
The United States cannot help the family, they say it is a foreign country in which they have no control.
The U. S. did not help U. S. citizens put out of their homes in Baja Ca., they Mexican courts came and put them out of their homes they built with retirement money at gunpoint.
The word is No Reciprocation with Mexico, which is why I am so adamantly against illegal aliens and the services they receive here. This is not the first time nor will it be the last time something like this happens.
They get free health care if they get hurt here. In fact we will fly them by helicopter to the hospital if needed. Of course you and I pay thier bill when we go in for treatment and pay ours..
No reciprocation. That is the thanks we get. There was another case, where an American citizen involved in an auto accident had a broken neck, The Mexican Police put him in Jail and refused to send him to the hospital.
Do not take things for granted, is the lesson in this article. These people were adopted by American parents who raised them. This young brother and sister were trying to meet up with their 'birth parents' (Mexican nationals)? The Mexican hospital refused to treat.
Are they to treat American citizens better???
I think not.
It is not the Mexican People, it is their backwards leadership.
Nothing is free in Mexico, but we sure know how to give it away here.
The word I'm looking for is RECIPROCATION!!!!
Which the Mexican government should be SHAMED into doing.
"Ricardo plummeted 40-feet to the ground. He was rushed to a Mexican hospital with severe head injuries. The physicians would not treat him, because he didn’t have health insurance. "
WHY didn't he have health insurance? He's been in this country since ages 7 or so? That's 37 years to get it. What was his excuse?
This kind of thing makes me crazy. I'm in the D/FW Texas area and took my son to a premier children's hospital in Fort Worth, Cook Children's, when he was having stomach pain. When we went into the ER I was shocked, it was standing room only Mexicans and it was a LARGE waiting room. I thought we had stepped into Mexico. Luckily, I had taken my son to the pediatrician first so we got right in. An hour later my son was having emergency surgery for appendicitis. If I had of taken him to the ER first we would have had to wait for hours. This was months ago and I'm still mad about it.
A lot of people in this country don't. It's called no benefits. Going trend in this job market. Mexico should have still treated him. Our hospitals are going bankrupt because of Mexico's exploding population here without insurance. We do not turn them away.
They turn our citizens away. Even when they are native to Mexico.
He was 23 yrs. old.
Pretty much par for the course. Most countries don't have any laws to guarantee medical care, they'll demand cash on the spot or a credit card.
However, I have seen an American consular officer step in to guarantee the medical bills of an American citizen in a third world country. It's completely discretionary. The embassy drove to the hospital almost immediately after I told them about this guy's plight, they were there within 20 minutes.
No word in this story about whether the family asked the U.S. embassy for help. They get annoyed with people traveling without insurance, but they can sometimes be helpful.
I have read that Mexican ambulances will take Mexican nationals and drop them off in border hospitals in the U.S. not because they are closer mind you, but because they patients, victims, don't have to pay.
And, amazingly, there are people here who think that's a good thing.
His adopted parents employment cut them off at age 23 if they are full time college students. A lot of people have no insurance.
That is not the point. It was an emergency. In this country, we treat most everyone. It's the law. Our hospitals are paying dearly for this. Mexico and other countries will just leave you for dead. And tht is what happened.
Forget insurance for a minute, this poor young man didn't even get emergency treatment in that hell-hole Mexico. Both Canada and Mexico bask in the spilled over glory of our country and both are ingrates.
The family may not have known, and there may not have been the luxury of TIME in the situation. Charges of inhumane behavior should be brought before an international court on this, since the U.S. is so powerless.
Mexico calls us in humane because of illegal aliens dying in the desert.
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