I am a nurse in a major hospital on the East coast. For job protection, I will say no more. But I just cannot fathom how we as a nation can afford all of these foreign nationals, illegals, whatever they are, in our hospitals.

Every other person I've taken care of in the past month has been here illegally, with no insurance. Most say they are "visiting" their relatives here. They ARE visiting -- they are coming in from Africa, Asia, and of course, South America. Many are elderly, aging, are receiving absolutely the BEST care, the most expensive tests, are here for lengthy stays for very complicated conditions. Not just Mexicans . ..many, many elderly Asian people here -- they are brought over by their younger family members and are just coming here to be taken care of, age and die.

And then there are the garden variety illegals, many in for traumatic injuries related to their unsafe working envirnments -- I've also seen several in lately for just plain old alcohol abuse. So, It's OUR job to get them sober for 3 days and just send them back out into society. So, they are taking up beds due to alchohol abuse. I also had one the other day with a traumatic brain injury due to a auto accident who was just a total care invalid -- no guess as to how much he is costing the American people -- he happened to grab my shirt and almost tear it off the other night he was so mentally incapacitated.

I'm sorry -- I just have to vent here. No amount of sanity exists at my workplace --we just ask no questions and are forced into providing them the BEST care possible. WHO is paying for this? It's got to be either county taxpayers or the federal government, providing these hospitals subsidies. NO hospital could stay in business when 95% of its patients are unable to pay.

I'm just so tired of seeing it. I just see millions and millions being spent on these people. As nurses, we work with aging equipment, have to make do with less and our demands constantly increase. We have to find interpreters, put up with 100 family members in a room when any of them are ill -- be around them with God Knows What sort of diseases they have. We are desperately short of nurses and techs and many nights have a hard time even getting the staff in to work.

What makes me so sad is when an elderly American citizen comes in for care and then they have to share a room with one of these people and their umpteen million family members, all making a racket and staying and wandering in and out of the room. Here are these Americans, many WWII vets, or just Americans who have worked all their lives here, paid into the system, and now at the time when they are due their care, they have to share it with this.

Sorry for the long vent, but I see it every day, see them wandering in and out, see the names, the faces, and I see the decay. However, our hospital just keeps building, keeps putting on additional wings, expanding more and more to take care of all of this. But we as nurses can't get raises, can't get additional staff, can't even find enough linens or trash cans some nights .....I could go on and on.