The family of a seriously brain injured Guatemalan man has asked a jury for almost a million dollars in economic damages from a Florida hospital for secretly repatriating the illegal immigrant to his home country without notifying his family or legal guardian, the Associated Press reports.
Luis Jimenez was at Martin Memorial hospital for three years because of injuries from a car accident. He was initially in a vegetative state, but eventually reached a fourth-grade level in cognitive ability.
The hospital, which spent more than $1.5 million on his care, argues that Jimenez wanted to go home, the AP reports.
In any case, the hospital got a court order authorizing his return to Guatemala. He was whisked back to an orthopedic hospital in Central America on a private plane in July 2003. But shortly after his arrival, he was discharged and, when other hospitals refused to take him, was sent back to be with his family in his boyhood home in a remote village, The TCPalm newspapers report.
Jimenez's cousin and legal guardian, Montejo Gaspar, says the Florida hospital in effect deported him to avoid spending money on his care and on legal bills.
The judge's order approving the move was appealed by Gaspar and later reversed, but by then Jimenez was back in Guatemala, the AP says.
The AP quotes Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association, as saying that regardless of the outcome of the case, hospitals may become even more wary about providing extended care to uninsured immigrants.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/07/illegal-immigrants-family-sues-hospital-that-secretly-repatriated-him.html?csp=34
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