Illegal immigrant hurt in Horry County suing for medical bills, workers compensation

Tuesday, Jul 17, 2007 - 03:53 PM Updated: 06:47 PM

By Jody Barr

As the immigration debate heats up across the country, taxpayers are already paying some of the cost of illegal immigration right now.

Undocumented workers hit the healthcare system daily, and now the legal system is feeling the squeeze.

News13 has the story of an illegal worker hurt on the job, who is suing his former employer because he says that employer refuses to pay the hospital bill.

The undocumented worker in this story agreed to do an interview only if we used his first name, and not show his face on television.

In this interview, Jose's lawyer tells how Jose was hurt when a scaffold collapsed and another worker fell on him.

Jose and his lawyer are suing Jose's former employer.

Attorney David Canty's made a living of late defending undocumented workers in workers compensation cases.

One of Canty's clients named Jose is suing his former employer for medical expenses.

"He said that the pain was very bad in his back and he could hardly walk," Jose’s lawyer, David Canty translated during the interview.

The accident happened in North Myrtle Beach last summer where Jose worked for a stucco contractor, when a scaffold he was working under fell to the ground.

"A person fell on his head and the components of the scaffold hit his back," Canty explained.

Jose says his boss told him to head home for a few days and rest.

Jose says he told his boss he was headed to the emergency room.

Jose believes it was that decision that cost him his job.

"He returned to work on Friday and showed them a document from the doctor at the hospital saying (SPANISH) that he could not lift more than 20 pounds."

Jose says when lunch rolled around; his boss paid him and let him go.

jose says he returned to the hospital because the pain in his back would not go away, but the hospital refused to treat him because Jose's boss refused to cover the bill.

"They become a consumable resource, much like days of old where the working poor were used until they were hurt or injured or too old then kicked to the curb," Horry County councilman Marion Foxworth told News13.

Foxworth introduced an ordinance last year that would have suspended a contractor's business license if a contractor employed illegal workers.

The ordinance failed, but Foxworth says if local governments don't act now, taxpayers will pay later.

"If they show up at the hospital emergency room, they're going to get treated and the cost for that if they can’t bear it themselves is going to be shifted to insurance holders or to the general public in terms of indigent healthcare," Foxworth said.

Foxworth says the bigger problem is the fact that illegals like Jose are turning to the legal system for help.

"This gentleman was willing to take it to court makes him unusual because most of them; fearing retribution by the government, never bother to take it that extra step," Foxworth said.

"Anyone who is undocumented lives in the shadows and only the bravest among them will choose to exercise their legal rights, Canty said."

Exercising those rights will cost taxpayers, and people like Jose the most.

The accident happened last July and Jose has not worked since; he says the pain in his back is too bad.

Jose's former employer is paying him total temporary benefits, which total about $400 a week.

Jose's case is set for a hearing sometime in the next several weeks.


http://www.scnow.com/midatlantic/scp/ne ... -0022.html