Thread: FL-Injured immigrant's case in court

Posted on Tuesday, 06.30.09 Recommend (1)reprint
MARTIN COUNTY
Injured immigrant's case in court
BY DAPHNE DURET

STUART -- Jury selection began Monday in the civil trial on behalf of a Guatemalan immigrant deported by a Martin County hospital after he racked up more than $1.5 million in medical bills.

Luis Alberto Jimenez sustained severe brain injuries in 2000 when the car in which he was riding collided head-on with a stolen van driven by a drunk driver.

He was taken to Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, then to a nursing home some months later.

Jimenez returned to the hospital for more treatment in January 2001, but when hospital officials tried to discharge him a second time, no nursing homes or facilities in the area were willing to take him.

After Jimenez's medical bills topped $1 million -- costs the hospital largely absorbed because Jimenez was an undocumented immigrant -- officials sought and won a judge's approval to ship Jimenez to a hospital in Guatemala.

Hospital officials repatriated Jimenez, but an appeals court later overturned the judge's decision, saying he did not have the authority to approve the deportation.

Montejo Gaspar, Jimenez's cousin by marriage and his legal guardian, sued the hospital, claiming false imprisonment.

Jimenez was kicked out of two Guatemalan hospitals within weeks of his return to his homeland and now lives in a remote village with virtually no medical care, his attorneys say.

Jury selection is expected to continue until the end of the week.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida ... 20392.html

Montejo Gaspar, Jimenez's cousin by marriage and his legal guardian, sued the hospital, claiming false imprisonment.

Jimenez was kicked out of two Guatemalan hospitals within weeks of his return to his homeland and now lives in a remote village with virtually no medical care, his attorneys say.

Why wasn't Gaspar hit with the bill or is he an illegal alien too? Is he planning to sue the two Guatemalan hospitals too?