Posted on 05/03/2008 7:07:59 AM PDT by kellynla
It is this reporter’s opinion that, after covering the invasion by illegal aliens over the past 40 years, it is difficult to find a story such as that related by Anna Gorman of the Los Angeles Times concerning illegal alien Ana Puente.
“Ana was an infant with a liver disorder when her aunt brought her illegally to the U.S. to seek medical care,” said Gorman.
The child underwent two liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center as a small child in 1989, and a third in 1998 — all totally paid for by the state of California.
Now it is reported that Puente has turned 21 and is due for another transplant. But she has aged out of her state-funded health insurance and is unable to continue to receive treatment at UCLA.
Her liver is failing again with her clinical course irreversible. Now we learn of a little-known option for a patient with certain healthcare needs such as hers.
Gorman says that if Puente notifies U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services that she is in the country illegally, state health officials may grant her full Medi-Cal coverage.
Puente has done so and has had her benefits restored. She currently awaits a fourth transplant at UCLA.
Puente shrugs this off saying UCLA should take care of her for the rest of her life, “because I’ve been there since I was a baby.”
With examples such as this, is it any wonder America faces financial bankruptcy with hospitals all over the nation closing while hardworking taxpayers pick up the cost?
Should illegals be the recipient of expensive transplant surgery? The tremendous cost of transplant surgery such as a liver transplant amounts to one-half million dollars, with additional post operative medical care, including the cost of anti-rejection medications, costing an estimate $30,000 annually.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Organ transplants are not like giving away candy. By granting one to an illegal and having the taxpayer pay for it, you are taking an organ that could be used to save the life of a legal resident.
Mexico itself would have no trouble excluding a possible recipient because of their (illegal) immigrant status.
Putnam was out in front of this issue when Bush was getting drunk in college.
He warned everyone what was coming 30 years ago...Few outside of California listened.
An outrage----a person declaring they are illegal should mean a bus trip back from whence they came. Let their own countries take care of them.
There are two problems which, together, make that policy impossible to implement:
1) No one is prepared to define "emergency", because,
2) No one will defend a doctor or nurse who says something is NOT an emergency, and is later shown to be wrong.
these clowns showing up with any medical condition that is NOT life threatening, NOT an emergency and expecting treatment is absolutely ridiculous; and is running hospitals into the ground...
And faced with closures, you can bet the house that if given that choice; hospitals will do start refusing emergency care to non-emergency patients ...the problem is that the existing laws DEMAND that EVERYONE who shows up be treated...which is ridiculous and the reason that hundreds of hospitals have closed throughout America! The federal laws need to be changed!
“Putnam was out in front of this issue when Bush was getting drunk in college.
He warned everyone what was coming 30 years ago...Few outside of California listened.”
Correctomundo!
Well, we’re paying for the failure in spades!
I always preferred Plato’s Republic. Your arguments are definitely not making me change my mind.
OK, take chest pain.
98% of chest pains presenting to ERs is agita, or a muscle pull.
If you send home an illegal who dies of a heart attack 6 hours later, you're out of business.
I'm fine with no medical care under any circumstances, period, for illegals.
A plan which makes an ER nurse who is triaging 150 patients liable for a mistake, though, is never, never, EVER going to work.
Good Lord, how incredibly weak. This is not about Plato's Republic.
We need to deal with problems and issues as they actually exist here in now in the real world.
Grow up. You're living in America and it's 2008.
Other countries simply have to to take care of their own. Mexico has utterly refused to take care of its own people.
I do understand you, but what I don’t get is why her body is rejecting the transplant for the 3rd time (she had 2 in 89 and one in 98)? If they can’t control the rejection then are they not prolonging the inevitable at the cost of lives of others?
to me it sounds as if the matches havn’t been that good. There may have been someone with a better match farther down the list who ended up dieing, how many times should she get another chance? How many people never even get a first chance because a organ that would be a good match for them goes to give someone else a 2nd or 3rd chance, and then their time runs out. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decisions because I really don’t know where to draw a line, I feel for thise young woman, but I also feel for the person who gets bumped back on the list so she (or anyone else) can have multiple chances....eventually someones time will run out.
btt
You posted earlier that you are "glad I am not on a transplant committee" because I believe that immigration status should not be a factor in granting taxpayer financed healthcare to illegals. This presents a dichotomy. If a transplant committee can choose to not grant a transplant to an illegal, then it can also choose to grant a transplant to an illegal as well. Given that there is always a shortage of organs for transplant, granting one to an illegal does indeed take it away from a legal (regardless of the ability to pay).
I stand by my original assertions. I believe that anyone who seeks healthcare in this country paid for by taxpayers must have their immigration status verified before any care is given away. If they are here illegally, then they must be deported on the spot. Perhaps having ICE agents at hospitals would be one way to achieve this goal.
That's why she should be deported immediately. By getting her out of the system, you not only give the taxpayers a break, but there will be more organs available for legal US citizens and residents. Let the doctors in her country of origin make this call instead.
I feel for thise young woman ...
I don't. She took away 3 livers from US citizens who could have had them transplanted instead. Now she wants a 4th taxpayer-provided liver. Talk about taking away our "blood and treasure."
I don’t disagree, does feeling for her mean I think she should get a 4th chance at life over someone who’s been waiting for some time and is a legal resident or actual citizen of this country? no.
I think if her only chance is another transplant she should have her relatives step up to the plate and the one who most closely matches should donate a piece of liver for her to go on. I believe that it’s been found that a transplant using a live donor is fairly safe for both.
I would have no problem with her home country providing the medical care necessary either. Although I do know that many Mexican nationals avoid the ‘free’ health care, even for birthing their children if they can.
Clearly you like to have the last word in, regardless of its relevancy ...so I am giving it to you! Enjoy it!
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