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

[Servant of the 9]

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.

By the time the ambulance gets someone to the hospital, paramedics have had time to radio in insurance and credit card info and get it approved or not.

If not, then just roll the gurney over by the dumpster and leave it.

So9

[Bald Eagle777]

This situation is out of control. Something has to be done at the National level.

[BlessedBeGod]

Bastards.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Shame this didn't happen to one of our dear elected representatives or their monied lobbyists. Most of them live in a fish bowl and do not have to deal with these issues personally. Guess it's like a 12 step program, we are going to have to fall to the bottom of the pit in order for them to grasp that their laws are breaking down America versus strengthening America, IMHO. This upcoming election is going to have an impact on the lives of those of us who support ourselves and obey our moral obligations to our God and country. Witnessing the registration of those who are registering voters makes my stomach upset as they are showing those who abuse our society by not contributing or wanting to participate. One should register because they feel the right and fulfill the obligations of that right, not because they can be driven to the polls and given a gift to punch a letter they've been hired to do.

[cynicom]

Sheana...

For years we have had a running discussion on this subject. My post was to zing Mamzelle.

[pcgTheDestroyer]

THAT is exactly the point. No one is saying that the Mexican hospital should have treated him if he scraped himself on a rock while hiking. Heck, no one here thinks we should treat the same in the US for the uninsured (I don't think). But a life-or-death situation? That goes well beyond the political forum into the moral forum. This should NOT have happened.

[sheana]

hehe sorry I intruded then ;)

[cynicom]

Evidently Mam did not see it. hehehehehe

[Orange1998]

You got to be kidding? What if a chlld gets injured and needs life saving emergency care.

[pcgTheDestroyer]

For a while, I didn't have insurance. I don't have any credit cards. I *did* have a well-endowed savings fund to pay for any medical problems. I even had a debit card (with the Visa logo) that tied into that account. HOWEVER, I also had a $500 limit on said card.

I bash in my head. Attempts to authorize my card for health care costs (which would certainly exceed $500) fail. Would you leave me "by the dumpster"?

[snooker]

We should treat Mexican citizens with a one way Bus ticket ... back to Mexico.

[Orange1998]

Better hope he is not driving the ambulance.

[Servant of the 9]

I bash in my head. Attempts to authorize my card for health care costs (which would certainly exceed $500) fail. Would you leave me "by the dumpster"?

You are a grownup. You could certainly have aranged things better if we had a "Pay or Die" policy.

If you wouldn't make better arangements, then yes, I would leave you by the dumpster.

Your Choice.

So9

[Servant of the 9]

You got to be kidding? What if a chlld gets injured and needs life saving emergency care.

If we had a "Pay or Die" system, then good parents would make sure their children had insurance and had a card with them.

Otherwise, Think of it as Evolution in Action.

So9

[Weirdad]

Great point. That would get someone's attention.

[Syncro]

For every Illegal Insurgent here from Mexico that is treated for medical concerns the Mexican Government should be billed and made to pay.

Period.

I am sure we must give some kind of monetary aid to Mexico (being as the elite in Mexico steal all of the money) so if they don't pay just cut off the flow of cash.

Heck if we do send them money (like we did to Iraq for "humanitarian purposes" of which Billions were stolen by the UN) cut it off anyway.

[pcgTheDestroyer]

"Pay or Die". I guess that shows where your priorities are, i.e., to the Almighty Dollar. Thanks for making it clear that you value money more than human life.

[GOP_1900AD]

But hey, in the reverse case, you and I would be paying for him after he showed up at some county hospital. Because we so much more LIIBBBBBBBBeral than Mexico, and proud of it! Hmmmmm .... how about this? I have a formula. The level of illegal immigration is directly proportional to the level of socialism in the US.

[smonk]

my mother in law took ill on a cruise. the ship's medical staff put her and her sister ashore at cozumel for medical attention. first, they wouldn't touch her without a credit card, then, they claimed they needed to medivac her out of the country, and wanted (IIRC) $19K. the two ladies walked out of the hospital, and since the ship had already left, they flew home the next day on a normal commercial flight.

it turns out she was seasick, and was likely dehydrated. at the end of the month, he credit card bill came, and the mexican hospital had billed $5K worth of charges.

moral of the story: if you HAVE to get sick on a cruise, do it after cozumel.

[ladyrustic]

You should treat people without insurance because some people pay their medical bills themselves. They don't have insurance.