Mexico refuses to treat american citizen without medical insurance

kake.com ^ | Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004 | Theresa Freed

[crushelits]

Tragic Trip
Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004

Send a Message to the Mexican President's Wife:
msahagun@presidencia.gob.mx

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.

Send a Message to the Mexican President's Wife:
msahagun@presidencia.gob.mx

[Mamzelle]

Enraging

[dts32041]

You mean Free medical care is not a right in Mexico?

NO wonder they keep coming north.

[Weirdad]

I guess that we should take that as a sign to do the same thing in the USA?

[cynicom]

Ask Mam and any doctor here, you dont have the money, they dont have to treat you.

[Onelifetogive]

“Anybody that’s thinking about going on a trip over there, I’d think twice again about it,” says Greg Sanchez.

Might want to think twice about that "not buying health insurance, but expecting someone to treat you for free" thing, as well!

[Mamzelle]

Since it is illegal Mexican nat'ls who are driving the nails into the coffins of countless ERs...I'd say there won't be the same problem. There just won't be an ER waiting for you at all, when you fall.

[Mamzelle]

?? What exactly are you saying?

By law, every comer must be seen and evaluated at US emergency rooms. Those in imminent danger are required, by law, to be treated. However, the law does not require those without emergency conditions to be treated.

In practice, those with non-emergent symptons are almost always treated, anyway. They've already cost the ER money, and they're a liability risk, so they get treatment for non-emergent conditions.

[bt_dooftlook]

We're shutting down ERs and trauma centers going bankrupt serving illegal immigrants and this is how they treat Americans?

[Servant of the 9]

Enraging

Why?

Why should they treat people without insurance?
Why should we?

I think they are setting a very good example that we should follow.
This is the first thing right about Mexico I have heard in years.

So9

[crushelits]

http://www.embassyofmexico.org/

mexembusa@sre.gob.mx

business@embassy.org

[Mamzelle]

For starters, taking a "wallet biopsy" on a patient with a bashed-in head is wasting valuable time. By the time you can prove you can pay, you're gorked.

[crushelits]

Mexico has free medical care.

[ZULU]

"Send a Message to the Mexican President's Wife:"

How do you say "Your husband is a filthy cuckhold" and "Remember the Alamo" in Spanish??

[sheana]

FYI my husband works in the emergency profession in an immigrant town. 90% of their calls are "medical aids". An ambulance is always called also. They do runs on things such as fevers from colds, dog bites, etc. The people use the ambulances as taxis to the local er where they are treated for free. The hospital does not base it's decision on treatment based on whether or not it is life threatening. They are always treated.

[rockabyebaby]

How many ILLEGALS in this country get FREE MEDICAL care - ALL OF THEM, they're all on welfare - we should start refusing med treatment to ILLEGALS.

[skeeter]

This is the ONLY kind of care a hospital in ANY country is morally obligated to provide, and the bass turds refused.

Meanwhile, here we treat runny illegal noses in our ERs.

[crushelits]

I Don't know.

But they do understand English.

I think a few hundred email messages will get their attention.

As FReeper, be respectful, just let them know how you feel, and they should spot complaining.

[Orange1998]

How can that be a good examble to follow....The patient died! No one should die because they could not pay up before service. What if the patient is self insured.

This is the first thing right about Mexico I have heard in years.

You may want to rethink your post.

[nicollo]

Part II of this sad story is the lawsuit.

The family will sue in Mexico and get the door slammed shut. Then they'll sue whatever and however tenuous link they can find to some American firm, sharing, of course, half the damages with their attorney.