Immigrants sent home by hospitals in some cases
by Michael Kiefer, Angel Larreal and Samuel Murillo - Jun. 21, 2008 12:00 AM
The Republic/La Voz
They came for him at 10:30 Friday morning.

Even in a coma, anyone could see clearly that Antonio de Jesus Torres Aguayo was a robust young man. His friends affectionately call him el negro because he is so dark from working in the sun.

Torres, 19, is a native of Sonora, Mexico, and has been a permanent legal resident in the United States since last November. But he suffered head injury and landed in St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center on June 7 after rolling his car on his way to work in Gila Bend.

Because he does not qualify for long-term medical care in Arizona, on Friday, against the wishes of his family, he was loaded into an ambulance and driven four hours to a hospital in Mexicali, Mexico.

Unlike neighboring states, Arizona law has no provisions for patients such as Torres.

In May, St. Joseph's Hospital was at the center of an international spectacle when a local attorney went to court to keep the hospital from shipping a comatose woman to a hospital in Honduras. The woman had legally lived in Arizona for 17 years. And the Honduran hospital told The Republic that it did not have the proper facilities to care for her. St. Joseph's relented and let her stay.

Torres was not so lucky.

Nor did his transfer go well. When his ambulance reached the Mexican port of entry, there was no Mexican ambulance waiting to take him to the Mexicali General Hospital. His father had to call for one and waited in 122-degree heat for it to arrive and take his son the last four miles to the hospital. And officials at that hospital told conflicting stories about whether they even knew he was coming.

"They told us they had everything arranged so that our son would have a bed and a room waiting for him," said the father, Jesus Torres. "But it didn't happen that way."

St. Joseph's would not comment on the Torres case, citing federal privacy laws.

"We are continuing to transfer patients who do not have coverage and can receive long-term care in their home country," spokeswoman Suzanne Pfister said. "That has continued. Even in the last couple of weeks there have been a number of transfers."

St. Joseph's spent more than $64 million on charity care and community-benefit services last year alone. It transfers nearly 80 patients a year to out-of-state facilities at costs that sometimes exceed $1 million. And although the majority of the patients are returned to Latin American countries, some are sent as far as China.

The hospital sent a respirator in the ambulance as a gift to the Mexican facility.

Earlier this month, La Voz polled hospitals in New Mexico, Nevada and Los Angeles to learn whether they transported patients out of the country. The answer was "no."


Andy North, a spokesman for St. Mary's Medical Center and St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Nevada, said that they have not transferred a single patient to Mexico, Central or South America since late May 2007.

But in Arizona, undocumented immigrants and even some who are here legally but don't have adequate medical insurance, like Torres and the Honduran woman, do not qualify for state medical benefits.

All Arizona hospitals face the same dilemma.

Jorge Solchaga, director of protection for the Mexican Consulate General in Phoenix, said that Arizona hospitals have sent 42 patients to Mexico so far this year, including five this month and 7 last month.

And for Torres, Solchaga said, "No hubo remedio" which means "there was no choice."

There were no appropriate facilities that would accept him or that the family could afford.

But Solchaga said that hospitals do not always follow established protocol in transferring patients or they involve the consulate late in the game.

And mix-ups occur.

In April 2007, a 19-year-old Mexican tourist suffered paralyzing head injuries after being run over by a garbage truck in Mesa. She was transferred out of Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, also against the wishes of her family, and flown to Hermosillo, Sonora. But when she arrived, as happened to Torres, there was no ambulance to take her to the local hospital, and that hospital told La Voz that it had not received official notification that she was coming.

Jesus Torres, the father of the man transported Friday, has been a legal U.S. resident since 1988.

Last November, his wife, Gloria, and his three sons finally received legal-resident status as well, so that they could emigrate from Mexico and live with him in Gila Bend.

Antonio de Jesus went to work with his father as an agricultural machine operator.

On June 7, shortly before 6 a.m., as he was driving from his home to the ranch, he missed a turn and rolled his car, suffering severe head injuries.

Though he is in a coma, Torres Senior said that Antonio de Jesus opened his eyes a few days ago, has reflexes and responds to painful stimuli.

Torres felt his son was responding to treatment at St. Joseph's.


Jesus Torres said that he has paid taxes in Arizona for 20 years. And although he said he understands the law, he questions its humanity.

"He's not illegal, so why do they throw him out like that?" he asked. "We're human beings. I think a dog would get more help here than a Hispanic."


La Voz reporter Valeria Fernandez contributed to this article







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