Thread: Juarez Victims Treated In El Paso Add Up

Juarez Victims Treated In El Paso Add Up

Miri Marshall-Weekend Anchor/Weathercaster/News Reporter

Posted: 4:20 pm MST December 28, 2010Updated: 6:18 pm MST December 28, 2010

EL PASO, Texas -- While most of the violence associated with the drug war in Juarez stays there the victims do not. Some of them make their way to University Medical Center in south central El Paso for treatment.

"This is a very serious situation. That's very unique to El Paso. This is something that other cities in the US don’t have to deal with,â€

"You'd have to be nut's to go to Juarez, or a drug dealer!"
A fence they need to put up a bullet proof wall!

There's something wrong with this picture if that many of them are U.S. citizens.

Originally Posted by sawdust

There's something wrong with this picture if that many of them are U.S. citizens.

Yes and it's called "Birthright Citizenship." Any pregnant Mexican from Jaurez can cross the border into El Paso and drop an American baby for free. Then if they can use a "friends" address in EP they can also get social services money that kid even though they actually live in Juarez.

UPDATE

Drug-war patients' treatment costs $4.7M
by Daniel Borunda \ El Paso Times
Posted: 12/30/2010 12:00:00 AM MST


A person is shot and wounded in Juárez, a Mexican ambulance carries the victim across an international bridge and a U.S. ambulance takes the patient to University Medical Center of El Paso.

Since the start of the Juárez drug war three years ago, 200 people wounded in Mexico have been treated at El Paso's county-run hospital at a cost of $4.7 million, according to the latest figures from UMC. Three-quarters were U.S. citizens.

The number of the patients classified as "victims related to the violence in Mexico" decreased this year compared with 2009. Hospital officials said there have been 64 such patients so far this year compared with 83 a year ago.

Violence in Juárez has reached unthinkable levels spurred by a war between the Juárez and Sinaloa drug cartels that erupted in 2008. More than 3,000 people have been murdered in Juárez this year.

As the bloodshed continues to rage, survivors have continued to seek care in El Paso. Because of federal law, hospitals cannot refuse emergency help to people on U.S. soil regardless of citizenship. UMC is the only Level 1 trauma center within 280 miles.

The hospital tries to get bills paid by health insurance plans, but that is not always possible.

"The patients from Mexico are by and large completely uninsured," said UMC spokeswoman Margaret Althoff-Olivas.

UMC statistics show the hospital has been reimbursed about $1.2


million of the $4.7 million total cost from the past three years. The statistics are as of Dec. 16. Medical costs vary depending on the severity of the patient's condition.

Some patients required multiple surgeries, some stayed in the intensive care unit for as long as 30 days, and "in a particularly egregious case" one patient was hospitalized for nearly a year, hospital officials said in a letter to President Barack Obama.

"Local taxpayers are footing the bill for the consequences

of a conflict that is occurring on foreign soil," stated the letter by Jim Valenti, UMC's chief executive officer, and Dr. Jose Manuel de la Rosa, founding dean of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso Paul L. Foster School of Medicine.

The April 16 letter was part of attempts to obtain federal money to help pay for the care of drug war violence victims.

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, has tried to get money for UMC as part of border security bills and the next Merida Initiative, which supports Mexico in its fight against the drug cartels.

"This is a problem that other cities in the nation, even along the border, aren't having to deal with," Reyes' spokesman Vincent Perez said.

Gunshot victims from Mexico usually arrive at UMC with little attention.

But that wasn't the case on Jan. 23, 2008, when an ambulance escorted by five or six El Paso police cars brought the first victim, a Chihuahua police commander who survived an assassination attempt. The hospital went into a lockdown. Doors were locked, police with assault rifles stood guard, and all visitors entered through metal detectors.

The hospital has not gone to similar heightened security since that first incident, and officials are confident of current security.

Hospitals are not neutral ground in Mexico, where it is not uncommon for hit men to finish off targets in emergency rooms.

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals face other problems in Juárez, where they are targeted by extortionists charging protection fees and kidnappers seeking ransom. The situation became so bad that earlier this month doctors went on a 24-hour strike to protest the lack of security.

"This particular challenge that UMC has been facing is a direct result of federal drug policy," El Paso County Judge-elect Veronica Escobar said. "It is a drug war in Mexico, but that drug war is linked to drug consumption in the United States."

Escobar wants the federal government to offset the cost of helping victims of the Juárez drug war in what she expects to be a financially difficult year ahead for UMC.

Escobar said it is important to remember that the human toll is even costlier.

She said, "What is happening in Mexico is a tragedy all the way around whether you are mexicano or not, whether you have family there or not."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.
Patients wounded in Mexico
Patients wounded in Mexico and treated at University Medical Center of El Paso, with costs incurred before partial reimbursement of $1.2 million.

2010

64 patients - 52 U.S. citizens, 12 Mexican citizens.

Total cost: $1,665,839.
2009

83 patients - 62 U.S. citizens, 21 Mexican citizens.

Total cost: $874,279.
2008

53 patients - 37 U.S. citizens, 13 Mexican citizens, 3 legal immigrants.

Total cost: $2,115,206.
Source: University Medical Center of El Paso.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_16 ... source=pkg

That's very unique to El Paso.

I think the writer needs to look up the word "unique" in the dictionary.

Originally Posted by elpasoborn

KFOX got information from UMC and then did some calculating. From 2008 until 2010, treating victims from Juarez violence has added up to about 4,300,000 in medical bills, but hospital officials said they have only received $1,221,000, leaving a difference of $3,079,000.

Of course the TAX PAYERS of Texas will have to foot this bill too.

The number of the patients classified as "victims related to the violence in Mexico" decreased this year compared with 2009. Hospital officials said there have been 64 such patients so far this year compared with 83 a year ago.

I have a stupid question...who's making sure that those "victims" (who are not American citizens) being treated in El Paso find their way back to mexico once treatment is completed?

Or does treatment in El Paso come complete with a green card? And another question...how come so many “American citizensâ€