Posted on 08/05/2013 1:59:57 PM PDT by Thebaddog
Demanding access to organ transplant procedures for undocumented immigrants, a group of hunger strikers set up camp outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Sunday.
They said they would stay until hospital CEO Dean Harrison agreed to a meeting, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The group of about 40 picketers included 14 people who were in the sixth day of a hunger strike.
“We’re asking for help,” said Blanca Gomez, 23, who needs a kidney transplant. “I go to dialysis three times a week. I’m not going off the hunger strike until I get on the transplant list.”
Gomez said she had lost four pounds and was surviving on water and Gatorade.
The group said 14 undocumented Mexican immigrants who live in the Chicago area need either a liver or kidney transplant, but they can’t afford care because they are denied federal health care because they’re not citizens.
On Sunday afternoon, a spokesman for Northwestern Memorial Hospital was not able to provide answers about Northwestern’s transplant policies.
The situation boils down to a moral and ethical dilemma, said Dr. David Ansell, chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center.
“One the one hand, the intent of the national transplant registry is to base transplants on who needs them most, but there are indeed a whole group of people who find themselves shut out,” he said. “And these are people who are uninsurable, and it creates an ethical dilemma of doing the right thing against the extreme cost of doing a transplant.”
An average kidney transplant can cost between $100,000 and $200,000, Ansell said. The care needed before and after surgery, in addition to medication, can cost tens of thousands more.
“These are people who contribute to the community. The answer can’t be no access, but it’s going to require calling together all the transplant centers in the region, as well as politicians and members of the community to find an equitable solution,” Ansell said. “The other thing to note is that 20 percent of organs come from uninsured people, but around 1 percent of organs go to uninsured people who need them. These people donate the organs, but mostly don’t get access to them.”
I guess it won’t be long before the illegals will be demanding sex change operations.
I want a pony.
I’m all for transplants for illegals, transplant their A**es right back to the country they came from!
They are here illegally and should go home for healthcare... if mexico has none... not my problem. GTFO of my country invading enemies!
LLS
I want a pony.
When I was a little girl in Poland we all had ponies.
I’m not saying they can’t have a transplant.
I’m saying they need to go home and ask for it there.
>> “I’m not going off the hunger strike until I get on the transplant list.”
Fair enough. Why not go on a *dialysis* strike while you’re at it? You know, just to rub our noses in it.
There will come a point in time when we ought to renounce our citizenship to merely survive.
In other countries, "undocumented immigrants" aka ILLEGAL ALIENS would be having their organs harvested.
and who is paying for her dialysis?
Won’t they get benefits in Mexico?
>> and who is paying for her dialysis?
The same one who stares back at you every morning when you brush your teeth.
Net, I seriously doubt it.
Even without the organ transplant, they collect more in tax-funded services than they pay in taxes.
contribute?
You spend 4 hours in dialysis, 3 times a week, you are too tired and worn out to WORK. The taxpayers spend thousands of dollars a MONTH on your dialysis and you pay NO TAXES/
How are you contributing?
Isn’t Mexico an OPEC country?
rich enough to take care of its own
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