Getting Tough
The Hospitals' BurdenThis is the fifth article in a series that explores efforts by government and others to compel illegal immigrants to leave the United States.
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November 8, 2008
The fate of an uninsured immigrant in Arizona
GILA BEND, Ariz. — Soon after Antonio Torres, a husky 19-year-old farmworker, suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident last June, a Phoenix hospital began making plans for his repatriation to Mexico.
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Josh Haner/The New York Times
IN PHOENIX Sister Margaret McBride, a vice president of St. Joseph’s, said, “We can’t keep someone forever.” More Photos »
Mr. Torres was comatose and connected to a ventilator. He was also a legal immigrant whose family lives and works in the purple alfalfa fields of this southwestern town. But he was uninsured. So the hospital disregarded the strenuous objections of his grief-stricken parents and sent Mr. Torres on a four-hour journey over the California border into Mexicali.For days, Mr. Torres languished in a busy emergency room there, but his parents, Jesús and Gloria Torres, were not about to give up on him. They found a hospital in California willing to treat him. For the full story, click here.
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Comments
This is a fantastic series! It is of course unfair for U.S. taxpayers to shoulder the hospital costs of this illegal immigrant. Would it not be reasonable for the Mexican government to care for Antonio? I thought the purpose of Mexican Consulates was to look after Mexican nationals living legally or illegally in Mexico. Mexico is not a poor country. Mexico is a major petroleum producing country. Why should the United States have to pay Antonio's medical bills?
Posted by: David Torres | Nov 8, 2008 5:36:43 PM
How ironic that illegals from (mostly) Mexico "complain" about the the Somali workers. Mexico suffers from deep-rooted racial problems, with lighter-skinned, European-rooted, Mexicans discriminating against the brown indigenos and both groups discriminating against and ridiculing persons with black skin.
Posted by: Thomas Lillich | Nov 9, 2008 12:20:38 PM
What a mistake St. Josephs made. I would not want to be a patient at St. Josephs regardless of my immigration status. This article shows that there is an urgent need for immigration reform and that hospitals need to follow some type of federal protocols when it comes to medical issues like these. St. Josephs is in for a lawsuit. The article clearly states that Anonio Torres was here legally "legal immigrant" and they should have provided better care than what they did.
Posted by: Martha, disable veteran | Nov 10, 2008 3:21:11 AM
