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A 30-year-old Mexican man who was in a coma, and whose treatment for a brain hemorrhage at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago ignited a dispute over whether hospitals should send medically needy undocumented immigrants back to their countries of origin, has succumbed to his injuries at the West Side hospital.
The disagreement over the little-known practice at hospitals revolves around Francisco Pantaleon, who arrived in the U.S. 11 years ago and suffered a severe brain hemorrhage in mid-July, according to his sister Socorro. A father of two, Pantaleon worked at a carwash and has no health insurance, she said.
According to a statement from the medical center, Pantaleon died just after 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The medical center had said it believed there was "little hope for recovery," and officials arranged for Pantaleon to be transferred to a hospital in Acapulco at UIC's expense. An official said his immediate family consented to the move.
The media wouldn't even be reporting on this if the patient were from Canada and died before going home. It's as though anything that happens to an illegal is significant, far more newsworthy than events involving legal visitors and of course citizens.
I got your point, JDubs. The furor the family made was insulting. Their family member had received FREE healthcare - healthcare that would have bankrupted any American citizen w/ no insurance. For the family to have beeen so ungrateful and demanding was astounding. Anyone who was not disgusted by the demands this family made hasn't been faced w/ a hospital bill over $250,000 - and no way to pay for it.
BTW - hospitals can put a lien on your home if you don't pay for your medical care. You can't just walk away from a big hospital bill like that. Well, if you are a citizen you can't. If you are here illegally . . . different story.
The media wouldn't even be reporting on this if the patient were from Canada and died before going home. It's as though anything that happens to an illegal is significant, far more newsworthy than events involving legal visitors and of course citizens.
Now they'll be demanding all sorts of "cause of death" investigations at the expense of the taxpayers . . . NEVER THEIR MONEY.
My thoughts exactly. My brother died suddenly, two days after being discharged from the hospital. When we inquired about an autopsy, we were told the doctor had signed the death certificate stating a cause of death. Therefore, by law, an autopsy would not be required. We were told if we wanted an autopsy performed, $4,500 would have to be paid in advance.
It infuriates me to no end, that this person who was in this country illegally will receive not one, but two autopsies. I doubt seriously his family will be required to pay one dime. Stories such as this make my blood boil. How dare his family insinuate that this man did not receive quality care, after receiving “free” treatment at this hospital in excess of $250,000? At least my brother’s hospital bills were paid by his insurance. Obviously, they are trying to financially benefit from his death; which I consider despicable.
Anyone who cannot understand why many people are so very angry about illegal immigration need only read this illegal alien's story.
After suffering a brain hemorrhage, the man received at least $250,000 in medical care. Who knows what the final total will be. According to the MD's at UIC (one of the top hospitals in Chicago), he had a very severe brain injury and there was virtually no hope of recovery. He no longer needed to be in the hospital, he needed to go to a nursing home or be cared for in his home with 24 hour help from a nursing assistant. It sounds like his wife had agreed to transporting him back to Mexico, the country he was a citizen of, but other family members disagreed and made a big scene. They had no intention of paying for the care he was going to need for the rest of his life. What they wanted was for the US taxpayer to continue to foot the bill. Needless to say, it was not long before reporters and Lulac got involved so things were at a stalemate when he died.
This is the kind of thing that really sets me off. DH and I both worked in healthcare and have seen firsthand how actual Americans struggle with medical bills. Here is this bunch of ingrates who are in the country illegally and they are complaining that we did not do enough for them.
They fearlessly seek out the media spotlight in order to hurl charges of racism at the very hospital that took their illegal, nonpaying relative in and did everything that could be done for him. Now that he has passed away, they are getting ready for Round Two. You know as well as I do that they are going to file some lawsuit in order to enrich themselves. Even if they don't win, the hospital will have to spend exorbitant sums to defend itself and waste time dealing with the media coverage. These people are totally lacking in any sense of right or wrong. All they want is anything that will benefit them and if it harms Americans in the process, so what.
At this point we don't know why he died. After two autopsies at taxpayer expense, I expect we will. He may have had another brain hemorrhage and it was just too much.
Here comes, the family with their lawyer(s) in tow.
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The circumstances of his death remain unclear, and family members are angry about what they say was a failure by the hospital to inform them that Pantaleon, 30, was near death. They are asking for the investigation to be sure that negligence did not play a role in Pantaleon's death, they said.
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"What I want to know is why didn't the doctors call us when my brother was in his last agony," said his sister Socorro.
OMG, these people can't possibly be that stupid. Do they honestly think that you always have advance notice when someone is going to die?
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Officials at the hospital said that Pantaleon arrived in terrible condition and had been dying all along.
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"We think we notified the family of appropriate changes when they occurred," he said. "We were open with the family the entire time about his prognosis."
I don't doubt that they tried to talk to them. I do doubt that very much of what they said sunk in.
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"I'm not accusing the hospital of anything until I have a second report," said Pantaleon's wife, Maria, speaking in Spanish. "Once I've seen the results of the second autopsy, then I'll make a decision about what to do."
We already know what she's going to do. And I'm helping to pay for that interpreter through my taxes.
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Afterward, they are required to arrange to transfer patients to settings where they can receive adequate care, said Doreena Wong, staff attorney for the National Health Law Program. The difficulty is that nursing homes in Chicago usually will not serve undocumented immigrants who don't have health insurance or any means to pay for care.
Now LaRaza, Lulac, MALDEF, etc. will wage a campaign demanding that US nursing homes care for illegal aliens for free. Nursing homes will not care for actual Americans for free, but as everyone knows, the rules that apply to the rest of us are thrown out the window when it comes to illegal aliens.
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