Native of Honduras awakens from coma
Woman's future in the U.S. at risk as court battle looms
Philip Haldiman


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... a0514.html

The Arizona Republic
May. 14, 2008 12:00 AM

A gravely ill woman at risk of being removed from the country for lack of adequate insurance coverage awoke from a coma Tuesday.

The hospital has been seeking to return her to her native Honduras; her family took the hospital to court.

But on Tuesday, 25 days after she lost consciousness from a complicated birth, Sonia del Cid Iscoa opened her eyes, focused and tried to respond to requests from the hospital staff to sit up, said family lawyer John Curtin.


"It's pretty amazing. She will still require long-term care, and this may make it easier, but there are still many questions that need to be answered," Curtin said.

And she still faces a court battle.

Iscoa, 34, has a valid visa and has lived in the United States for more than 17 years. She has no family in Honduras.

But St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center sought to have her sent to Honduras when she went into a coma April 20 after giving birth to a daughter about 8 weeks premature. Iscoa has an amended version of Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System coverage that does not cover long-term care, Curtin said. But her family worried that the move would seriously harm her, or, at the very least, prevent her from ever returning to the United States.

Iscoa's mother, Joaquina del Cid Plasecea, obtained a temporary restraining order to keep her from being moved. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Carey Hyatt also ordered that the family post a $20,000 bond by Tuesday to cover St. Joseph's costs of postponing the transfer.

However, Curtin said that the hospital gave the family three more days to come up with the money before a hearing Friday.

If the family can prove that Iscoa would suffer irreparable injury by a move, the bond will be refunded and Iscoa will not be transferred. But if Hyatt determines that Iscoa is not in imminent danger by a move, the family will forfeit the bond.

A stipulation to a court order issued by Hyatt Tuesday evening said that the parties were "actively exploring alternative sources of securing payment for the medical bills of Sonia Iscoa."

Iscoa is legally in the country under temporary protected status. Sharon Rummery, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman, said temporary protected status can be granted to people who are in the United States without valid immigration status when a catastrophe happens in their home country.

Rummery said that there are about 73,000 Hondurans in the United States under temporary protection status.

Sister Margaret McBride (I guess Sister McBride doesn't know about the Catholic Church offering Santuary to Immigrants) , vice president for mission services at St. Joseph's, said she is not allowed to discuss the specifics of the case, but that the hospital is not licensed for long-term care.

McBride said that at St. Joseph's, where about $25 million in charity care was applied to uncovered patients in 2007, all options are discussed with patients who need long-term care. Facilities such as community health centers, which provide a sliding scale for payment, are available.

"If they can't afford that, typically, is when we're forced to send a patient back to their home country, where they're usually eligible for health care. This is not an easy decision at all," McBride said. McBride said about eight patients a month are sent to their home countries. (Again, why doesn't St. Joseph's offer this woman sanctuary like Cardinal McPhoney preaches?)

Curtin said that Iscoa, now the mother of seven children has been taken out of the intensive-care unit. Iscoa has a brain injury, non-functioning kidneys and is being tube-fed. A neurological assessment has not been done, Curtin said.

Iscoa has been in the country legally since 1998. She works in a carpentry shop and as a house cleaner (and still has the miopic idea of having 7 children).

A family spokeswoman said earlier that St. Joseph's was planning to transfer Iscoa to a facility called Hospital Escuela in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that treats indigent patients.