Hospital Trying To Deport Dream Student [on a Coma]
Author: Tim Paynter
Fortunately, Christian and Rocio's family are no dummies. They have refused to approve the “medical deportation”. In the meantime, Rocio has regained consciousness, though she developed fluid in her lungs and pneumonia when they tried to remove her from life support. The family is frantically trying to raise money to keep Rocio under hospital care. If the family is not successful then the hospital plans to dump Rocio anywhere they can, even if it means booting her out the front door.
To those who say it can't happen this way in America one only needs to examine the case of 17 year old Joe Arvizu. Joe was "medically deported" to Mexico after living a fair part of his youth in the U.S. His death was as much due to the failure of the system for a person desperate for treatment of the Leukemia that ravaged his blood as it was the Leukemia itself.
In a land where most people have far more than they need and where body fat rates continue to rise, some have been cast aside. Maria del Rocio Almanza Quiroz, just call her Rocio, (Roseeo)suffered flu-like symptoms on November 6th 2012. She collapsed six days later with a viral illness which invaded her brain. As doctors induced a coma to reduce brain swelling, Rocio could not know her life would depend upon the valiant efforts of her U.S. citizen husband to stop her deportation, not at the hands of ICE, but by the hospital staff charged with saving her life.
Rocio is a dream student, that is, the child of an undocumented immigrant. Rocio's dream was about to come true. Rocio was to appear the day after she collapsed for her biometrics examination under a limited immigration program sponsored by the Obama Administration. The program allows youths who were brought to this country, often before they could form memories, to remain together with their families. Rocio made the trip to the U.S. at age three.
(Above, friend Carmen Cornejo, who is a close friend of Rocio Almanza and compassionate writer)
Since undocumented immigrants don’t qualify for health care in many states, especially in Arizona, the hospital staff was eager for Rocio to leave. The Banner Desert Campus Hospital in Mesa, Arizona, demanded the family pay up. They tried to convince husband, Chirstian Solorio , to sign for a “medical deportation”. That means, instead of ICE deporting his wife, Rocio who now qualifies for deportation relief, the hospital would do it instead. They call the practice “dumping”.
What the hospital proposed was for Rocio to be disconnected from life support, placed on a stretcher, and given a free ride across the border. Once there, she would be pushed out of the ambulance and left to die. Meanwhile, Mexican hospitals would not likely take Rocio as she is not in their systems, having spent almost all of her life in the U.S.
Fortunately, Christian and Rocio's family are no dummies. They have refused to approve the “medical deportation”. In the meantime, Rocio has regained consciousness, though she developed fluid in her lungs and pneumonia when they tried to remove her from life support. The family is frantically trying to raise money to keep Rocio under hospital care. If the family is not successful then the hospital plans to dump Rocio anywhere they can, even if it means booting her out the front door.
To those who say it can't happen this way in America one only needs to examine the case of 17 year old Joe Arvizu. Joe was "medically deported" to Mexico after living a fair part of his youth in the U.S. His death was as much due to the failure of the system for a person desperate for treatment of the Leukemia that ravaged his blood as it was the Leukemia itself.
The U.S. is quickly turning into a place where there are two kinds of people. Those who have more than they can consume during their lives, to the extent of over consuming and becoming obese, and a larger class who work to keep the privileged in comfort. With the distance between rich and poor expanding, undocumented immigrants are not the only ones who will suffer hospital dumping, but they certainly have been good test cases as to the acceptable level of care for those who have the least in American society.
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