Rich Campbell: Family of injured illegal immigrant shows 'gratitude' by suing hospital?


What happened to Luis Jimenez is a tragedy.

But what’s about to happen next is a travesty.

This fall, a jury likely will be empaneled to determine whether Martin Memorial Medical Center was guilty of false imprisonment and kidnapping when it deported Jimenez to his native Guatemala.

Jimenez, an illegal immigrant, was working as a gardener in Stuart when he suffered massive brain trauma in 2000 after the van he was traveling in was struck head-on by a drunk driver.

For the next two-plus years the hospital provided uncompensated medical care for the uninsured Jimenez.

Cost? More than $2 million.

Martin Memorial was granted a court order in 2003 to transfer Jimenez to a hospital in Guatemala, which it did, even chartering a jet to facilitate the transfer. In 2004, a higher court reversed the order, ruling the judge in the case had no authority to authorize Jimenez’s deportation.

Enter the attorneys.

The law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, P.A., has taken up the family’s cause and plans to seek financial damages from the hospital for “forciblyâ€