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Illegal sent home after "free" treatment in Ariz. Chris Hawley Republic Mexico City Bureau Mar. 17, 2008 12:00 AM ECATEPEC, Mexico - When the motorcycle that illegal immigrant Laura Velázquez was riding slammed into a concrete wall, it cost a Phoenix hospital $478,000 to save her life. The hospital is footing the bill. But Velázquez's life in America is finished after hospital officials sent her back to Mexico. Velázquez's story is an example of what happens when uninsured illegal immigrants need medical care, a problem that costs American hospitals and taxpayers millions of dollars each year. It's a critical issue, because a federal program aimed at reimbursing hospitals is scheduled to disappear at the end of this year. advertisement But Velázquez's case also shows how innocent people can get ensnared in the illegal-immigration controversy. Velázquez, now 22, never asked to come to the United States; she was brought as a child. She wasn't driving the motorcycle; she was only a passenger. Her journey home has attracted the attention of Mexico's national media. Government officials in Ecatepec, her hometown on the outskirts of Mexico City, say she should have been allowed to recover in Phoenix, and they have accused the United States of indifference. Velázquez, meanwhile, lies in a dim, windowless room in a relative's home in Ecatepec and thinks about how things used to be. "I want to walk again," she said, her voice a whisper because of a tracheotomy tube. "I want to go home." Twist of fate When Velázquez was 11 years old, she and her mother climbed into a car trunk in Nogales, Sonora, and emerged again in Arizona. They moved to Laveen with her father, a landscaping worker. Velázquez learned English, attended Summit High School and had two children with her high-school sweetheart. She worked off and on at a furniture store, processing credit applications. On Jan. 26, a neighbor invited her for a ride on his motorcycle. What happened next is unclear. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the Phoenix Police Department have no record of the crash. Velázquez remembers little, her family says. But whatever happened, it was violent. When an ambulance brought her to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, her upper spine was snapped, her left lung was collapsed, and her left leg and arm were broken. Paramedics reported that the motorcycle had hit a concrete wall, said Margaret McBride, the hospital's vice president of mission services. The driver escaped with minor injuries, said Velázquez's mother, Estela Loera. For days, Velázquez fought for her life. "The patient has been medically unstable," doctors' notes said. "Surgery has been canceled multiple times." In all, Velázquez underwent three operations to repair her spine, mend her bones and install breathing tubes. Costly care No one is sure how much uninsured illegal immigrants like Velázquez cost the United States, according to a 2004 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That's because hospitals usually don't ask patients about their immigration status. But a study by the Border Counties Coalition estimated that illegal immigrants accounted for more than $200 million of the $845 million in unpaid medical and ambulance bills in 2002 at hospitals along the U.S.-Mexican border. By law, hospitals must treat emergency medical patients until they are healthy enough to be discharged. The cost is a serious burden for hospitals in border states. Some have had to cut back on other services. "I've had to close my OB department down, I've had to close my long-term-care facility down, because the drain on the resources doesn't allow it," said Jim Dickson, administrator of Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee. "We're into rationing because of the uncompensated (care)." Under pressure from lawmakers in border states, in 2003 the federal government set aside $250 million a year to reimburse hospitals for illegal-immigrant care. But the program applies only to the first two or three days of care, and the program expires at the end of this year. Hospital trade groups are lobbying to get it renewed. As Velázquez's tab grew, hospital officials knew they would never get the money back, McBride said. So they declared her a charity case, essentially forgiving her $478,000 bill. Last year, St. Joseph's spent $17 million on such charity cases, immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. "Ultimately, it does cost the community," McBride said. "It affects the programs we can offer, the technology we can buy, the raises we can give employees." Hospital officials knew another problem was on the horizon: Velázquez would need long-term care. Without insurance or legal residency, no U.S. hospital would take her. Mexico, however, has government-run hospitals and a free, if rudimentary, socialized medical system. Coming home Velázquez arrived in Hermosillo, capital of the northern Mexican state of Sonora, in an aircraft chartered by St. Joseph's. In her immigration photo, blue-and-white breathing tubes cover her face. Relatives went to the Ecatepec government for help bringing Velázquez the remaining 1,000 miles home. That's how the Mexican press learned about her case. "Woman deported in vegetative state," read a headline in the newspaper El Universal. "Hospital that treated her reported her as illegal," read one in El Gráfico. "(Mexican) federal authorities did nothing," El Milenio added. The stories exaggerated. Velásquez wasn't in a vegetative state, her family says. She can talk a little and move her head, arms and toes. She wasn't deported, either: McBride said St. Joseph's never had any contact with immigration officials. But at a time when the United States is building border fences and cracking down on illegal immigrants, the story of the comatose woman kicked out by the Americans quickly spread around Mexico. None of the articles mentioned the free medical care. The Ecatepec government looked into flying her home, but no airline would take a patient in such grave condition, said Osmar León, a city councilman who chairs the health committee. A chartered jet was out of the question: It would have cost $40,000, one-tenth of the city's entire health budget, he said. And so Velázquez was loaded into an ambulance for a 26-hour ride across Mexico. She cost Arizona taxpayers $478,000 DOLLARS!!! This is what only ONE illegal has cost Arizona taxpayers!! Is it any WONDER that we do NOT want them here?

Public Comments

1. sounds about right
2. One more reason to build the fence
3. Sounds like the first poster is using the war in Iraq to justify illegal criminal aliens coming into our country and receiving free medical care from our hospitals. What in HELL does one have to do with the other?? NOTHING!! That's like saying...I'm going to go to the hospital and not pay my medical bills and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME because I don't agree with the war in Iraq. As a matter of fact, I'm not going to pay ANY of my bills and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME because I'm using the war in Iraq as an excuse.
4. The sad thing is that nobody is really surprised. I'm just thrilled that they actually deported her. I hope they got her mother and father too.
5. If she had taken the proper steps to become a citizen she wouldn't have this problem. If her parents actually cared for her, then they would not have brought her into a life of crime. Mexico needs to pay the hospital bill, along with interest, and of course there is the mental anguish that the neighbor is experiencing now.
6. "But a study by the Border Counties Coalition estimated that illegal immigrants accounted for more than $200 million of the $845 million in unpaid medical and ambulance bills in 2002 at hospitals along the U.S.-Mexican border." So $645 million dollars in unpaid medical debt is incurred by Americans...what can we do about them?
7. ashley Americans and legal immigrants can be tracked down. Illegal aliens that return to their country...such as the one above CANNOT!! Understand? Sadly enough, not enough Americans don't have health insurance. Are you using that as an EXCUSE to justify illegal criminal aliens leeching off our country and medical system?? It certainly sounds like it!! To utilize the poster above's argument: You are using the one that says: Since not all Americans have health insurance, illegal criminal aliens can ALSO come into our country ILLEGALLY, receive medical care, not pay their medical bills and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it!!
8. She cost more than that. Came here when she was 11, how many years of tazpayer funded education did she recieve? Had 2 children, with no insurance how were their births paid for? Procesed Credit applications, how much personal info did she have to share with makers of illegal documents? She came here when she was 11 and is now 22, why did she not try to become legal. Don't say she was a child and therefore not accountable. Being raised here she was well aware of our laws. Our reform schools are full of children, many younger than 11 who have broken the law.
9. Not really an answer, but the articles about this poor, innocent woman failed to mention the fact that she got into an accident with the man whom she was having an affair with! She was partially responsible for breaking two families up! She was engaged with 2 small children and he was married for 13 years with 4 children. They were next door neighbors! Not only that, but he did not walk away with only minor injuries. He, too, is unable to walk and has many surgeries since (he is not an illegal immigrant though). I am unsure as to which side of the fence i sit on when it comes to illegal immigrants, but I would prefer that newspapers and journalists write the complete truth before publishing such reports!
10. As an AZ resident, I read it. I'm not surprised and of course as an illegal, she won't pay a penny. Just surprised she was sent back home to Mexico. If a citizen had a half mil in med expenses they would not be so quick to write it off. There were plenty of nasty comments from the Mexican side about how we didn't do enough and we don't care for "immigrants." She was NOT an immigrant, she was an illegal. She still could have had health insurance--even as an illegal (how do you think she had a job?) She just wasn't too concerned about our laws apparently. I am sorry she is injured--wouldn't wish that on anyone, but the idiotic take on her "she didn't ask to come here" and "she wasn't driving the motorcycle." First adult on the planet who was completely powerless and a pawn. Did she go back to Mexico as an adult? No. Did she apply for citizenship? No. Did she "have" to ride on the back of the motorcycle? No. Clearly she didn't wear a helmet either--how was that bad decision "forced" on her? At some point people have to grow up and accept responsibility for their CHOICES. As usual, it's the taxpayers who bear the burden AND suffer insults on top of that! I'm also tired of the LIES--"comatose" and all the rest. Please. She was NOT "comatose." Apparently the injuries weren't bad enough for the professional victims, they had to up the ante. The woman probably won't ever walk again--why lie? That's not bad enough? Shows you she is MERELY a political football to too many.