Jury selection starts in trial for deported hospital patient
June 29th, 2009 by Daphne DuretSTUART - Jury selection began Monday in the civil trial on behalf of a Guatemalan immigrant deported by a Martin County hospital after he racked up more than $1.5 million in medical bills.
Luis Alberto Jimenez sustained severe brain injuries in 2000 when the car he was riding in collided head-on with a stolen van driven by a drunken driver. He was taken to Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, then to a nursing home months later.
Jimenez returned to the hospital for more treatment in January 2001, but when hospital officials tried to discharge him a second time, no nursing homes or facilities in the area would take him.
After Jimenez’s medical bills topped $1 million — costs the hospital largely absorbed because Jimenez was uninsured and an undocumented immigrant — officials sought and won a judge’s approval to ship Jimenez to a hospital in Guatemala.
Hospital officials repatriated Jimenez, but an appeals court overturned the judge’s decision, saying he didn’t have the authority to approve the deportation.
Montejo Gaspar, Jimenez’s cousin and legal guardian, sued the hospital on claims of false imprisonment. He’s seeking further medical care and punitive damages. Jimenez was kicked out of two Guatemalan hospitals within weeks of his return to his homeland and now lives in a remote village with virtually no medical care, his attorneys say.
Jury selection is expected to take a week. The trial is expected to last three weeks.
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