Jurors hearing closing arguments in lawsuit trial surrounding hospital’s private deportation of brain-damaged Guatemalan immigrant
July 23rd, 2009 by Daphne Duret
Montejo Gaspar
Stuart — Either administrators at Martin Memorial Hospital poured tremendous time, care and money into a brain damaged patient whose family showed their gratitude by suing them, or they used a judge’s ruling to launch a clandestine plot to deport him back to his homeland to shirk more medical costs.
These were the arguments a Martin County jury heard Thursday at the end of the civil trial surrounding the private deportation of patient Luis Albert Jimenez, a Guatemalan immigrant who spent the better part of three years at the hospital recovering from injuries he received in a February 200 car crash.
Montejo Gaspar, center, the former Guardian of Luis Jimenez, watches as closing arguments are made Thursday at the Martin County Courthouse (Sarah Grile/ The Post)
Jack Hill, one of the attorneys for Jimenez’s cousin by marriage and legal guardian Montejo Gaspar, spent the morning recapping testimony from the three-week trial for the jury. Hill said the case was about Martin Memorial’s plans to ship Jimenez back to Guatemala with or without Gaspar’s approval to get relief from the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical and legal costs they were incurring while caring for him.
“The meter was running and Martin Memorial wanted to stop it from spinning,” Hill said.
Defense Attorney Scott Michaud shows pictures of Luis Jimenezl while making his closing arguments Thursday at the Martin County Courthouse (Sarah Grile/ The Post)
Scott Michaud, an attorney for the hospital, said Martin Memorial’s staff cared diligently for Jimenez for 998 days despite the costs to them. He said they only sought to deport Jimenez after the former landscape worker with diminished cognitive ability expressed a desire to return home.
Michaud told jurors that by the time hospital officials took Jimenez to a Guatemalan hospital on a chartered jet in 2003, government officials there assured them he would be provided with free quality medical care and Martin Circuit Judge John Fennelly had issued a ruling allowing the transfer despite objections from Gaspar and his attorney, Michael Banks.
“Martin Memorial doesn’t just buy Mr. Jimenez a bus ticket to the nearest border,” Michaud said, later saying of the hospital’s actions. “We are proud of the job everyone at Martin Memorial did on Mr. Jimenez’s behalf, from start to finish.”
Banks, who was the plaintiff’s star witness in the trial, told jurors he contested the deportation because he believed the Guatemalan hospitals would discharge Jimenez once they realized he couldn’t pay. After his return he was eventually returned from two hospitals and sent to live with his mother in a remote village.
He remains there today with little medical care, Gaspar’s attorneys say.
An appeals court in 2004 overturned Fennelly’s ruling allowing for his deportation, and Gaspar sued the hospital on Jimenez’s behalf for wrongful imprisonment.
Hill asked jurors to award Jimenez more than $1 million from the hospital to go towards his medical care plus non-medical and punitive damages.
Jurors began deliberations briefly Thursday and are expected to continue today.
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July 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I’VE GOT A HOT FLASH FOR POST READERS: YOU ARE, INDEED, PAYING FOR THE MEDICAL CARE OF THIS PATIENT. HOSPITALS PASS ALONG THE COST OF UNINSURED PATIENT CARE TO THEIR PAYING CUSTOMERS; THIS SHOWS UP AS HIGHER INSURANCE COSTS FOR EVERYBODY ELSE. LET’S NOT REWARD THIS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, WHO SHOULD HAVE STAYED IN HIS OWN COUNTRY.
July 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
The hospital cared for this illegal immigrant as long as they could. He should have been deported earlier and treated in his own country. We cannot afford to take care of our own citizens much less the citizens of other countries, no matter what the medical care is like in their country. He should not be awarded any money. He was here illegally and should have stayed in his own country. He has already cost our health care system and legal system money we can’t afford to pay.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
The fact is that half of LEGAL Americans in this screwed up country of ours have no insurance why does anyones immigrant status matter??? and for the so called doctor they sholud not let you practice due to you thoughts on where patients come from!!! Who gets it America as a hold fights wars in other countries and then supplies them billions of dollars to reconstruct there countries when America is the one in need of $$$$ to help people here!!!! and ignorant So called americans (who dont really understand the concept that in one form or another our ancestors where also illegal) dont make this country any better.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Why is he entitled in this lawsuit to damages from the hospital?? I am a lawyer and I don’t get it. In order to prevail, you must show liability and damages. He is liable to the hospital, not vice versa.This is a case about care for a man in this country illegally who reached maximum medical improvement at our hospital and was ready to be discharged and whose home government was prepared to receive and treat him. Once he got back to Guatemala, the burden falls on his government and fellow citizens to care for him, not our goverment and citizens.
So…as a compromise…..award him the million dollars with the proviso that the funds go to the Martin County hospital debt of $1.5 million! And his attorneys should get nothing but the satisfaction of reducing their client’s legitimate debt to the hospital.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
This blog post notes that Jimenez remains in Guatemala today. Okay, but the headline link near the top of the Post web site home page reads, “Attorney in Guatemalan’s death: Hospital only wanted to halt costs” …
Huh? First time I’d heard that the guy had died, but that seems to be an error on the part of the headline writer. There’s no editorial oversight to guard against these gaffes? By not investing in editors, major metros lower themselves to the level of indy bloggers, and won’t stand a chance in the long run … Maybe that’s why even the print edition bills itself as a “home page” …
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
This is why EVERYONE must be REQUIRED to have health insurance and to pay for it. So that everyone can afford to go to a hospital when they need to. Not just the rich and the indigent. Hospitals that don’t earn enough money to stay open DON’T, and might not be there for you when you need one. There should be NONE, NOT ONE, illegal immigrant in this country. The cost of keeping them is higher, in the longer term, than rounding them up and deporting them. Three requirements of all LEGAL IMMIGRANTS must be 1- Health Insurance- paid in advance, 2- A permanent place to live, 3- A legal tax paying job so as to be self supporting for one’s self and their families and to not be a burden to the health care or welfare systems or the prisons or schools. The absolute moment that they become a burden to social welfare they need to be deported (before becoming full citizens) and I DON’T WANT TO PAY THE BILL!!! Or not have the services unaffordable or unavailable when I might need them. Why would I choose to pay for someone else when I can’t afford to pay for myself. This is utter and complete idiocy! Wake up everyone!!!!!!! Your health insurance and taxes are MORE EXPENSIVE because of this nonsense and if you need to go to a hospital and perchance don’t have health insurance well all I can say is GOD HELP YOU because no one else will and it can cost 5 to 10 times more than if you do have insurance because the costs are unnegotiated by your insurance company or the government. They can and will take EVERYTHING that you own and leave you first in debt and than dead and this debt passes on to your heirs or direct family who can end up stuck with the bills after your dead. Everyone is merciless and so should YOU BE, THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE CONSUMER!!! This problem is so much more enormous than anyone realizes. Doctors and hospitals should get ready to work harder for less and deliver more honest services but on the other side NEED to be protected from false or friviolous lawsuits and just plain craziness. The issue is not that this person is a legal or illegal alien, the point is that he had no insurance to begin with. No one today can be expected and prepared to pay these kind of medical expenses out of pocket, that’s unrealistic. That’s the short version of why the entire medical system in the USA doesn’t work unless you’re rich, poor, or currently well employed in a group plan with no preconditions being excluded. We believe that we’re getting good health care but we are not and then even if you do have health insurance the first thing that the health insurers want to do is deny a claim and they are pros at it. But who can blame them when only mostly sick and/or desperate Americans afford themselves coverage. If EVERYONE had MANDATORY coverage most of these issues would be eliminated.
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s amazing, the less you do for yourself in this country, the more the governemt seems to handout. They don’t reward the working people who get up everyday and go to their low paying jobs to survive and have to pay the taxes for all these people only to be denied of any help themselves. They don’t give us free hospital stays, or healthcare. If that were an American an any other country it would never have went on for that long. Deporting the man was right, he should NOT be entitled to anything here in this country, the healthcare reform should use this as a perfect example of allowing everyone the same entitled coverage, its not right, you should have to earn it.
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 pm
guess what happens when they vote in the so called health care reform. all us citizens on medicare will pay triple for thier medicare part a and b, so what does that do to people who are on disability and receive medicare, this is thier complete income,the government will tell you what doctors you may see and will decide if you even need to see a doctor. better think more than twice about this health care reform.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:16 am
We will be going into a more socialist type of structure in our society and country because of rampent abuse by everyone. Believe me America you are not going to like it but there seeems to be no other solution right now. Middle class America and small enterpreneurs are the back bone of American growth and these are the prople who suffer most by not being insured and/or insurable. Get ready to work harder for less and have your neighbors looking over your shoulder. If we are all entitled than the bounty has to be shared equally. We’ve created this by allowing lawsuits like this to be taken seriously. The only thing more this patient or his family should receive is a big fat bill for his total medical costs, transportation and legal fees, payable and garnishable also from family members living legally in this country. And his previous employer should be fined so heavily that they wouldn’t dare to hire anyone illegal ever again. Wake up America, get fed up and speak up! This is your country, your health care system and taxes, so claim it back!!!! In the USA unless you are rich, indigent, well employed and eligible for a group plan, or on medicare you are pretty much uninsurable because it is so expensive, that is if you qualify. Everyone else tries to get disability or goes without, these are the facts. The main reason that the illegal alien issue has become a huge problem is because of the long term costs to our society. Either fix the problem or have Mexico just give us the deed to their country and we’ll pay the bills.