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SuperGirl 01/21/2011 9:20:00 PM
You need to understand that the problem is with our system of gov't (not caring enough to provide for its own citizens), not the people (undocumented or otherwise) who seek out aid.
"One thing I do know is that America and New York City can't afford the costs of continued mass immigration at current levels." Says you? I'd like to see those numbers. History has shown that immigration encourages prosperity, and you can't fault a human being for doing what he or she can to live a decent life. Immigrants (like your ancestors) are not the problem. The feds spend way too much time and money on nonsense issues, so rather than blame other hardworking people for our own bad luck, we need to hold accountable the people that made this country the disaster it is today. Scapegoating innocent people that want to and do work hard, and for so little, won't help your case or anyone else's in this country. This woman (like most immigrants) isn't stealing anything from you that cannot be made available if your government started caring more about the people and less about the dollars being waved at them by money-hungry corporations.
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marlon balcarcel 08/17/2010 4:40:00 AM
i am julia's nephew a am 12 years old i pray to god for a transplant for my aunt . My parents also pray for this , so my causins wilmar and jasmine don't have to suffer when they see her in the hospital. i love my causins a lot and not only are they my causins, my parents are their god parents. Me and my family lived with her in the small apartment while my mom took care of jasmine in 2002. i live in New Jersey but me and my family go visit my aunt often. my father gives her money every time we visit. it is painful having to see my aunt depressed and living in a small apartment. i just pray she gets better and i also pray for her transplant.
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toomuchchange 07/25/2010 6:32:00 AM
This was a strange article because it was so clearly driven by an agenda, which the author Shefali Kulkarni made clear as he went along. In other words, it was obvious propaganda. Many of the dramatic "points" the author made to show how illegal immigrants were unfairly treated by the US healthcare system are subsequently unmade by the facts, which as others have already pointed out, seem to show that this illegal immigrant has received far more free treatment than most uninsured American citizens would receive, even in a very generous New York City public hospital.
Two examples: The author begins his article by saying Julia was afraid her immigration status would be revealed so she could not go to a hospital. The fourth paragraph states categorically "Under no circumstances, however, could she see a doctor." But when she did go to a hospital, he quotes Julia as saying: "I was not afraid to tell them I didn't have papers," she says "A lot of people in the hospital were illegal. I knew they weren't going to deport me because I was sick."
Then Kulkarni says: "Undocumented immigrants, Ofri [her doctor] knew, don't get on a transplant list." A few pages later, however, and we read "Being undocumented, by itself, does, not make a person ineligible for transplant, says Stuart Katz at NYU's Department of Cardiology."
Kulkarni's constant claims that there was almost never anyone around to translate from Spanish to English is suspect, as others have pointed out. If Julia is knows so little English and has so little medical information translated, then how can she possibly be taking her 15 free medicines as prescribed?
If her ability to cope is as limited as the author claimed, then she wouldn't be a good candidate for a transplant, to my mind, because she couldn't take medicines she needs consistently and as prescribed, for life, to keep herself and her new heart in good health.
I don't want anyone to die her because of lack of healthcare. But I myself am unemployed and without insurance now and yet because I still have a bit of money in the bank and still receive unemployment, I don't qualify for Medicaid.
All the hundreds of thousands of dollars of free medical care and prescriptions that Julia has received are unavailable to me, who is a citizen and whose parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents were citizens.
One thing I do know is that America and New York City can't afford the costs of continued mass immigration at current levels.
Our own people desperately need the jobs and healthcare that we're giving away free to people from overseas.
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tee 07/24/2010 9:19:00 PM
Also I have to add I am a US citizen who lost a job in 2008 and shortly thereafter broke my toe. I had no health insurance and tried to hobble around with intense pain. I couldnt take it anymore and finally went to the ER at St. Luke's. After several hours I was told what I feared the toe was broken. I had no money to pay for the x-rays, medication, etc. I was told to see the office for financial assistance. It felt lousy having to go thru that process where every bit of personal information was scrutinized. After a wait of a few months I was finally told that I had been accepted into the Medicaid program, which paid all but $50 of my treatment. I have to say I am offended when I see that an illegal immigrant was rushed into Medicaid. I see that her condition was much more serious than mine but I am a citizen who was poked & prodded and she was put into the program ASAP. Is that fair?
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tee 07/24/2010 9:13:00 PM
Sorry this is a sad story however millions of US citizens and even legal immigrants face these issues everyday and i have to put their interests ahead of those that break the law and come here illegally. She probably wouldn't have gotten ANY treatment in Guatemala.
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cherie 07/14/2010 3:41:00 AM
This is horrible, but working in a small town less than an hour outsie the nation's capital I find many working poor who have no access to decent health care. Rates increaded 40 percent for small business in maryland this year, after increasing almost 20 percent last year...these people can't afford to pay the health insurance any longer, and if offered their employees can't affrord it, it's unafrodable if you are making forty thousand a year to spend what ammount 12 thousand a year for a family of 4 ,and that for a high deductible plan where you pay thousands ouT of your pocket before coverage kicks in that is. That is blue cross blue sheild plan, the cheapest in the state if you don't use Coventry...which most doctors don't yet accept here.
So sorry if I do't bleed out over an immigrant, we don't take care of people here as it is.
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debisis 07/12/2010 5:49:00 AM
I Have a Plan to Destroy America
I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, lets destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that "an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide." here is my plan:
We must first make America a bilingual-bicultural country. History shows, in my opinion, that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. One scholar, Seymour Martin Lipset, put it this way: The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy. Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Lebanon ---- all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with its Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans.
I would then invent "multiculturalism" and encourage immigrants to maintain their own culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal: that there are no cultural differences that are important. I would declare it an article of faith that the black and hispanic dropout rate is only due to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out-of-bounds.
We can make the United States a "hispanic Quebec" without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently:
... the apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentrically, and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.
I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with a salad bowl metaphor. It is important to insure that we have various cultural sub-groups living in America reinforcing their differences rather than Americans, emphasizing their similarities.
Having done all this, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated - I would add a second underclass, un-assimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% drop out rate from school.
I would then get the big foundations and big business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of Victimology. I would get all minorities to think their lack of success was all the fault of the majority - I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population.
I would establish dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would "Celebrate diversity." "Diversity" is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other-that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse," peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together, and we can take advantage of this myopia. Look at the ancient Greeks. Dorf 's world history tells us:
The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshiped the same gods. All Greece took part in the olympic games in honor of Zeus and all Greeks venerated the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy Persia threatened their liberty. Yet, all of these bonds together were not strong enough to overcome two factors . . . (local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions . . .)
If we can put the emphasis on the "pluribus," instead of the "unum," we can balkanize America as surely as Kosovo.
Then I would place all these subjects off limits - make it taboo to talk about. I would find a word similar to "heretic" in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like "racist", "xenophobe" that halts argument and conversation. Having made america a bilingual-bicultural country, having established multiculturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of "Victimology", I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra - "that because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good." I would make every individual immigrant sympatric and ignore the cumulative impact.
Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson's book "Mexifornia." This book is dangerous - it exposes my plan to destroy America. So please, please - if you feel that America deserves to be destroyed - please, please - don't buy this book! This guy is on to my plan.
"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the Spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that Spectrum." - Noam Chomsky, American linguist and US Media and Foreign Policy critic.
It sounds like Dick Lamn hit the nail on the head.
However, the question we need to be asking ourselves and members of Congress is:
Why is the plan to destroy America being implemented?
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Kate 07/09/2010 8:09:00 AM
Just a note on the debate about whether translation services were provided for this woman - having worked in several different health care facilities in NYC, I have seen that even the most caring, well-meaning health care workers do not always make sure to provide language interpreters. In fact, frequently they do not. It seems to be an issue of time and hassle, but what happens instead is that they sometimes use family members (can be a HIPAA violation) or just explain things in English. Patients nod, whether they understand or not.
I believe that hospitals even post that every patient is entitled to an interpreter, but not every place makes it standard practice to emphasize this. I have tried to do my part in making the extra effort to go through interpreters, and also to tell the patients that it's their right; I have also slacked off myself due to feeling overextended.
Just wanted to offer that perspective.
And - whatever debates may be raging about illegal immigrants and people "stealing" "our" jobs (really?)...I am of the belief that geographic and political borders don't dictate family or countrymen/women. We all have to live together, on one planet, and I hope that we can all do our best to extend our compassion and our kindnesses to others in need, regardless of their race, nationality, country of origin, legal status, etc., etc.
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Sylvia 07/05/2010 9:02:00 PM
Another illegal immigrant who paid a fortune to come here and steal our jobs and our resources. Send her home.
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Dr. Ofri 07/05/2010 5:48:00 PM
For Jean (and anyone else),
I feel very bad about how that quote about "whites" came across. It was incorrectly quoted and it was also vastly out of context. It was taken from a lecture I gave, not an interview.
The context was being self-deprecating toward myself--white and neurotic--trying to expose my own foibles. It was not about "hating" any patients. I have plenty of white patients (neurotic and not!) who I care deeply about.
When I read the article and the way the statement came across, I felt terrible. I wish I had a way to correct it, but I don't. I only hope that people who read it can see through the awkwardness.
Both professionally and personally, I feel strongly about compassion toward all patients, no matter the background. Nobody can ever fully reach the ideal, but that shouldn't stop us from trying.
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Kwende Idrissa Madu 07/04/2010 8:32:00 PM
A sad story about a woman who only wanted to make a better life for her family. The larger issue is how do we allocate limited medical resources in this society??? Should only those who can afford to pay be eligible for organ transplants???
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Anna 07/04/2010 7:12:00 PM
Careful, debisis, you are on the verge of becoming a conservative.
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denise 07/04/2010 3:45:00 AM
I work at a cancer center and a little known fact is that an undocumented person diagnosed with cancer can get emergency medicaid to treat the cancer. Compare that to my co-worker a working American citizen that was diagnosed with cancer and despite having medical insurance to cover the costs of treatment, was still left with a significant amount of debt. I HAVE NO SYMPATHY FOR JULIA. Does she pay taxes? why should she get on a list for a new heart? By they way, Why doesn't this woman know more English? give me a break, I am tired of the same old story, can't speak English, doesn't understand, but knew enough to WALK from Guatemala, find a job, have an another child, pay to get her child from her country, etc. etc. give me a break.
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Jean 07/03/2010 12:05:00 AM
While I am certainly sympathetic towards Julia, the author doesn't go all the way and say that the woman's health condition was a result of exhaustion and dehydration from walking for days in the desert. I think it was, unless she was born with it? See, it's not made clear. That being said, her family and her children were in her country. Why didn't she stay with them? Why put them through all that? If she loved them, why? I also did not care at all for the tone of Dr. Danielle Ofri- "I hate when patients are like me- white, educated, and neurotic..."
Fine, Dr. Ofri, but do you really need to hate those people? If you love blue-collar workers so much, and so-called "whites" disgust you, why not toil away in a third world country for low pay? Because you can't put your money where your (smart) mouth is.
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debisis 07/02/2010 7:54:00 AM
To be VERY clear: I find this article insulting to any American citizen - especially among the American working poor in this country.
As a democrat and moderate-liberal myself, I'm all for anyone coming to this country so long as they obide by immigration laws while this country can sustain them and it's citizens. Any American with half a brain should have ZERO reverence for those - no matter how poor, undereducated, albeit desperate (as I would be if I was in the same situation), or *unhealthy* -- who come to this country illegally expecting with a free pass to live and work in this country. Sure, there are lots of poor people who want a better life. I am one of them. Do I have the right to go to France or Northern Europe and plant my ass there and cry foul and "woe" is me???
Btw, hey, VV, congrats on becoming an increasing pack of pathetic libs than those from thestranger.com.
I have a MA. I'm in late thirties. And. I work FOR SHIT after moving to NYC from the South. Yes, I'm aware I'm certainly not among the few.
Here in NYC, like in South Florida where I had once worked in the private yachting industry filled with a nice array of Anglo Saxon ILLEGAL aliens from Europe, Australia, and South AFrica --- I *still* to this day work along side some of the most untalented, unskilled and under-educated illegal aliens (some who by now are resident aliens before going through "loop holes")....as a FUCKING cleaning lady. Not that I mind cleaning, but I make very little money. And I feel that I make less money ever since most cleaners/maids have been from other parts of the world -- many working here illegally in NYC.
One of my bosses is Polish. And there's lots of Polish women who work for this American owned business that I work for as well. My boss seems very nice to me...she's well dressed, however, she doesn't speak or write the best English, though she does try to do her best.
However, I wonder how long she's been in the States. I wonder if she's college educated...and how much MORE she's making than me.
I've also just learned that this company has been paying me less than what I thought I was being paid.
I'm an aging college grad toiling with Polish and other foreign immigrants, some who can NOT clean a toilet to save their lives. One Polish co-worker of mine, again a "nice" lady, uses the same rag to clean the ENTIRE BATHROOM and barely cleans or wipes down certain areas that are very dusty by now...***while the American apt owner who we clean for (btw, this is at the Plaza, folks) is some elderly idiotic narcissist who LOVES this (very nervous, not so well spoken) Polish woman, all the while this apt owner, as fu*ked up as she is via her personality disorder, constantly has blamed me for what some other maid had done in the past including having blamed me for leaving cherry pits (!!!???) on her parquet floor. I'm writing a lot of information -- but what I'm spewing about is simply my true and crazy pathetic EXPERIENCE.
Am I in hell here? Is this hell? Really? Is this for real?
Is the out pouring of EMO over this article - FOR REAL?
It's bad enough that as I age (and lose eggs), and lose my chance at having my own life and my family, while I and many other Americans are in constant economic and emotional tormoil, to read some cheesy bit about a poor, unhealthy, under-educated illegal alien who probably makes more than me per hour.
So - to the jack ass writer who touts these poor pathetic illegal aliens as being worthy enough to live in a country where they are not legal residents simply because they are ill...GO OFF YOURSELF YOU NAIVE, IMMATURE, SPINELESS LIBERAL HEMP HUGGING JACK ASS.
God Dammit. And damn ALL YOU IDIOTIC FOOLS WHO WANT TO RAISE YOUR VIOLINS TO SUCH A PATHETIC HALF WITTED ARTICLE.
BTW,
do you enjoy riding the train to and from Queens with a bunch of illegal aliens who can not even speak English to you after you ask them which train to take to Jamaica Center? Have you been to Jamaica Center ENOUGH TIMES btw????
--- an angry, poor democrat.
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DF 07/02/2010 1:09:00 AM
Here is a story that should go all the way to the White House and the Governer in Arizona. Just because someone is an immigrant or here illegally, does not mean they don't deserve to have the same rights and privileges that American born citizens have. People are the same everywhere: we all ache, have challenges, love our families and yearn for a good and comfortable life. I am touched by Julia's story. She is a woman of amazing strength. I commend Dr. Ofri, other hospital staff, and social services agencies who've been helping Julia. I pray that she receives the transplant she needs very soon.
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Anna 07/01/2010 6:12:00 PM
She's been in this country for 12 YEARS and she doesn't even know the months of the year in English yet? I feel sorry for her medical condition, but I think it's time she learned a little English.
Not enough translators at a hospital in BROOKLYN? I don't believe that for a minute.
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john 07/01/2010 8:46:00 AM
"Hardworking illegal Hispanic immigrant" is the laziest of journalistic positive stereotypes. All Asians arean't math whizzes, every black kid can't hit a 20 foot jumper and some Jews suck at making money, but that hardworking cliche is never absent from any story on Hispanic immigrants. Hard working compared to whom? Those lazy American workers, with their entitled demands for fair wages and health insurance?
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sakara 06/30/2010 10:07:00 PM
left wing take on right wing news----an illegal alien in usa...NEEDING EXPENSIVE HOSPITAL CARE!!!! ...JUST WHAT CONSERVATIVES SAY ILLEGALS ROUTINELY DO---but liberals say, until now, that's a racist lie...! now liberals saying how evil usa doens't provide health care for...illegal aliens!?!?!?!
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hamtaro 06/30/2010 8:41:00 PM
I am sorry she had to deal with that, it is a sad story from an emotional and human angle.
However the tender and humanity issues are not the reality of the illegal immigration crisis. Drug cartels, kidnapping gangs , and a huge unemployment problem domestically, all make importing illegals a bad idea. Every country has laws about immigration. If you break them you get deported. Every country.
Also, what does the fact that the doctor's father played for the israeli basketball team have to do with anything, leave that for the (j)new york times.
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steve 06/30/2010 5:57:00 PM
I feel for Julia, honestly, deep down I do. But I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I'm proud that we can give aid and assist those without hope in their own countries. Yet on the other hand I look at my own life. My husband and I cannot afford his HIV medication. We don't have prescription coverage. And we do not qualify for any ADAP/AMAP assistance because we make too much money on our middle-class incomes (under $50,000). We were advised to get a divorce to allow my partner to qualify, but that didn't help because of household income. So for us it is like the 1980s all over again. Night sweats so bad that we change the bed and wash towels nightly. A $500 copay and 60% of the cost of a hospital stay because of pneumocystis. And a reocurrance of KS on his feet. We're getting worn down day by day, trying to negotiate payment plans for care, knock down a bill, or look for public/private assistance that he may qualify for. Eventually he'll have to quit his job, and maybe he'll qualify for Medicaid. It just seems so unfair. We had second jobs (part-time) to pay for the meds, but those evaporated in the recession.
I wish Julia well. I hope she gets the transplant and associated care--I honestly do. Please don't mistake my whinging as anti-immigrant. Just..just..there are a lot of someones out there like us who are thrown away for one reason or another. Just remember that we're here, too.
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Jack 06/30/2010 8:39:00 AM
I did not think of the report not being authentic until I saw it questioned. I work with maining undocumented persons and there is never a problem with translation or finding Spanish speaking peopel if I am not avaiable.It is a sad story, I have simular stories.
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Joe 06/30/2010 8:03:00 AM
Anna Russo is correct, the author is playing fast with facts, hellbent on portraying the patient as a Christ-figure and the doctor as a Caucasian God taking on the White Man's Burden.
Not sure what the point is either, even in the old days of open immigration Ellis Island screened arrivals for health problems. This woman wouldn't have made it into the USA with her family history and early symptoms.
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Anna Russo 06/30/2010 5:00:00 AM
It is BS that Spanish speaking personnel were not available to translate for this patient. There have been many Spanish speaking persons in the hospitals for years including doctors and nurses. Now I question the veracity of the rest of the article.
