Thread: NC: In coma and illegal, López was in limbo

http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/487762.html

Published: Sep 18, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Sep 18, 2006 06:28 AM

In coma and illegal, López was in limbo

PAYING FOR RODRIGO LOPEZ'S CARE
* L-pez was in the hospital at UNC for a month and a half, at an estimated cost of $900 a day, or about $40,000. UNC Hospitals absorbed that cost, and also paid the estimated $30,000 cost of the flight to Mexico. Most of that money came out of profits from the hospital, though in the fiscal year that ended June 20, 2006, the state allocated $41 million to UNC Hospitals to offset $84.1 million in charity and bad debt costs.


Jessica Rocha, Staff Writer
Rodrigo López was a man sin papeles -- without papers. He lived and worked in High Point illegally.

The 18-year-old spent the past year installing carpet. He lived with a sister, Eva, avoiding immigration officials and pining to return to Mexico. He didn't drive, didn't socialize much, didn't have girlfriends.

Instead, López saved money to wire to his parents. He was the only one of 11 living children who could afford to help them out.

On Memorial Day, López almost drowned at Jordan Lake. He has been in a coma ever since.

In July, López was taken to a hospital in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, close to his parents and their prayers.

As the illegal immigrant population grows in the Carolinas, the number of people transported home gravely injured, ill, or dead, has increased.

For López and many other illegal immigrants, going home is often harder than getting here.

In López's case, everyone agreed he should go back to Mexico. UNC Hospitals was footing the bill for indigent care -- totaling $40,000 in a month and a half. The Mexican Consulate agreed he should return, but there were no papers proving his Mexican citizenship. López's family also wanted him home but lacked the money for transportation.

This is the story of Rodrigo López's homecoming, and how he finally came to exist on paper.

Longing for home

Like many illegal immigrants, López didn't like life in North Carolina. He had no idea how expensive, isolating and foreign life would be here. López was continually planning his trip home, though the date often got moved back as life moved on.

He told his mother, Mar'a Santo Arebalo Vázquez, that the next time he went home it would be by airplane.

She recounted a conversation with her son.

"I'm going to have lunch with my sister in High Point, and eat dinner with you [in Mexico]," he told her.

López told her he would be home for Christmas. If not this year, then the next.

On Memorial Day, Eva López, her husband and children all decided to go to Jordan Lake to enjoy their day off work.

The family arrived at Jordan Lake in the early afternoon. López headed for the water. He wasn't a swimmer and was usually cautious, his sister said. Prax Oceguera, López's brother-in-law, went to get one of his sons, he said, leaving López for just a few minutes.

When he got back, López had disappeared. The family ran for help. A rescue crew organized, and beach-goers offered help sweeping the swimming area.

More than 10 minutes later, López was found unconscious in water deep and cold enough for him to remain alive that long. He hasn't awakened.

Toward documentation

For a while after the accident, López's sister didn't tell her parents what had happened, though they suspected something was wrong when he hadn't phoned for a few days, and no money was being wired home.

Instead, the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh was contacted, launching an effort to document López's name, age and nationality. The consulate also started processing a request to permit López's parents to enter the United States to visit their son through a program called humanitarian parole.

Felix Herrera is the chief of the protection and legal affairs department of the consulate. As the Mexican population in North and South Carolina rises, Herrera now processes about three cases like López's per month, in which the clients are often gravely ill and many times unconscious.

The consulate petitions the Department of Homeland Security about 10 times a month for humanitarian parole, Herrera said. Most are granted, though visits are usually limited to immediate family members whose relative in the United States could die.

López wasn't just undocumented in that he had no legal paperwork authorizing him to work or live in the United States. He didn't have sufficient proof that he was even from Mexico. That's not unusual.

"In most of the cases, they don't have all of the documents to prove their nationality," Herrera said.

After interviews with family members, the consulate issued López a certificate of nationality -- a letter to Mexican immigration and customs officials and an updated photo.

Parents arrive

López's parents arrived in High Point in June. For several weeks, their routine consisted of drives from High Point to Chapel Hill for appointments with hospital counselors and representatives from the consulate.

The family shifted in and out of yellow hospital gowns, slipped on and off surgical gloves required when entering López's room.

There, a TV stayed tuned to a Spanish-language station, droning at a teenager with shaggy dark hair whose eyes occasionally fluttered. He looked as if he could have been napping.

After several weeks, hospital staffers told López's family there was nothing more they could do for him.

Care for López cost about $900 a day, according to estimates based on the type of service he may have been provided, according to UNC Hospitals. The hospital was absorbing the cost because López was uninsured.

He could live indefinitely.

UNC Hospitals offered to pay for López to be flown to a hospital in Mexico, Herrera said.

The family preferred that he be close to home as well.

This time, travel by air

López had entered the United States illegally about a year ago, crossing the border into Arizona from a spot near Agua Prieta, Mexico. He took a bus to High Point, where many others from his hometown have settled.

On July 16, López was flown back to Mexico in an air ambulance jet. The estimated cost of his trip was $30,000, Herrera said. The hospital paid.

In a hospital room in San Luis Potosí, López is still unconscious, Oceguera said. The family prays for his recovery, he said, and finds comfort in knowing he's home.

In High Point, sister Eva is sure to remember her younger brother even as the family adjusts to his absence.

In August, she gave birth to a third son. His name is Rodrigo.
Staff writer Jessica Rocha can be reached at 932-2008 or jessica.rocha@newsobserver.com.

The hospital footed the bill? No, WE ultimately foot the bill with higher health care premiums and higher health care costs.

Send Mexico the Bill!!!!!!!!!!!

Dixie

Its a public hospital, so they just send the bill to the taxpayers. Instead, they should send it to his employer and the gov'nr of NC, since they are supporting this greed and corruption of our country.