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Posted on 07/07/2003 2:00:07 PM PDT by dennisw
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Group joins bid to keep migrant in Stuart hospital By Melissa E. Holsman staff writer July 4, 2003
STUART — A migrant farm worker's group on Thursday joined a legal battle to block Martin Memorial Medical Center from following a court ruling that ordered the release of a Guatemalan man who has spent two years living at the hospital.
During an emergency hearing, attorney Gregory Schell, of the Lake Worth- based Migrant Farmworkers Justice Project, teamed with Stuart attorney Michael Banks in arguing for a delay of the June 27 court order calling for the discharge of Luis Alberto Jiminez, 31, a former Indiantown landscape worker who suffered severe brain injuries in a 2000 car crash.
He has been cared for at Martin Memorial ever since. Hospital officials estimate his two-year stay has cost more than $1 million — and, because Martin Memorial is an acute care rather than rehabilitative facility, has failed to provide him with the rehabilitative care he requires.
Banks represents Jiminez's court-appointed guardian, Montejo Gaspar Montejo of Indiantown, who for months has fought the hospital's efforts to return him to Guatemala.
Before the hearing, Schell criticized Martin Memorial officials for failing to include in a discharge plan the quality of medical rehabilitation Jiminez is expected to receive in Guatemala and where he'll be sent.
"Nobody has identified the name of the facility, the type of care that will be available or who's going to pay for it," Schell said. "For all we know, they are going to dump him on the tarmac.
"We don't believe the court has the jurisdiction to deport people and these issues haven't really been considered," he added.
In his order, Circuit Judge John Fennelly ruled Jiminez should be relocated to a rehabilitation home in Guatemala that Martin Memorial attorneys have said is willing to accept him.
He found that, given Jiminez's undocumented and indigent status, "the only services available to him are in Guatemala."
After listening to both sides Thursday, Circuit Judge Larry Schack — who refused to review Fennelly's ruling — told Martin Memorial officials not to release Jiminez before Tuesday, the earliest Fennelly could take up the issue himself.
Banks contended Fennelly's order violates numerous state and federal laws, including immigration statutes that govern the removal of aliens from the United States "against their wishes."
He said he expects to file a motion with Fennelly for a rehearing in Jiminez's case.
"We are kind of flabbergasted that he went this far. I would have thought the court would have taken more baby steps toward this goal," said Banks.
"I think the sensitivity and the importance of the case is there for the court to take up this matter."
Schell, who has represented migrant workers around the state, put it more succinctly.
"We don't believe he's going to get any care at all" in Guatemala, he said. "It's literally life and death for this gentleman ... and the court needs to consider that."
Martin Memorial attorney George F. Bovie defended the hospital's actions, and insisted Jiminez will continue to receive the care he needs.
"Martin Memorial hospital has taken wonderful care of this man ... and that's not going to change until he leaves," said Bovie. "And when he leaves, I believe the government of Guatemala is going to honor its commitment and promise that was testified to."
- melissa.holsman@scripps.com
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They'll raise tax payer provided dollars. They certainly don't intend to pay out of their own pockets.
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