BRADENTON HERALDAugust 20, 2006
Undocumented migrant fighting for life, children
BRADENTON - Juliana Mateo wants to live. She knows what it's like to live without a parent - her father was gunned down by guerrillas in their native Guatemala when she was only 2 years old. She doesn't want her children Jose, 10 , Selmo, 5, and Fabiola, 2, to suffer the same fate. "God please help me stay alive for my kids," Mateo said, sitting in a hospital bed as tears streamed down her face. "I just want to be here for my kids." Mateo is suffering from chronic kidney disease, which requires her to go through dialysis, a process that helps cleanse her blood of the waste and salt that the kidneys normally regulate. It's a life-long process that helps but does not cure. Having entered the country illegally in 1992, Mateo is at a crossroads in a fight for her life. Without documentation and with little earnings from her job as a former farm worker, she does not have the money to pay for the costly medical treatments being provided to her by Manatee Memorial Hospital - more than $700 a day. Though the Guatemalan Consulate in Miami is attempting to help her find aid in her native country, consulate officials say there is only one hospital in the country that provides dialysis, and even that hospital is strained by all the people it must treat. By Florida law, Manatee Memorial must provide treatment to anyone who checks in through an emergency room, regardless of immigration status, or whether they are insured, said Brian Flynn, CEO of Manatee Memorial Hospital. The hospital ends up fronting a majority of the costs, spending $10 million in charity care in 2005. Though Manatee Memorial is provided $3 million in indigent care funds from the county, that money is earmarked only for patients who are legal U.S. residents or citizens. With roughly 18,000 farm workers living in Manatee County, an estimated 59 percent of workers do not have benefits such as health insurance, according to a 2005 study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Like Mateo, they come to the United States fleeing impoverished countries in search of work, not expecting the financial challenges they may face by being sick and uninsured. Ninety-one percent of farm workers report to paying for health services with cash, according to the HUD report. Even so, those interviewed for the survey said they did not seek out routine health care, choosing only to go to the hospital or doctor's office in cases of emergency. The Manatee County Medical Society established We Care Manatee Inc., a charitable program to offer medical services to the county's uninsured. "We started seeing patients coming through with more severe and critical issues, and it was because they had no money whatsoever to pay for medical treatment from the onset," said Kathy Handra, We Care Manatee's executive director. We Care opened a free clinic in 2003 at the Mary Simpson Strong Family Center at Tillman Elementary School to provide medical attention primarily to migrant farm workers and their families. The program has 64 specialist doctors who volunteer their time to treat the uninsured patients that are referred to the program. "All of us who work with indigent care could use additional resources," Handra said. "We certainly just hang in there, literally just hang in there month to month hoping for the best." Flynn said Manatee Memorial Hospital has contacted 15 to 20 outpatient clinics to see if any would be willing to provide Mateo with the dialysis she needs, but to no avail. "She has no way to take care of her bills - that puts us in a tough situation," Flynn said. Karla Cruz, vice-counsel with the Guatemalan Consulate in Miami said her office is working with Guatemala's minister of foreign affairs to see what options are available to Mateo. In a country roughly the size of Tennessee, about 80 percent of those living in Guatemala live on or below the poverty level, according to a profile of the country on the U.S. Department of State's web site. "There is only one hospital that provides dialysis," Cruz said. "Even they are limited by the amount of patients they can see, because they are the only provider of this service in the country. The foreign minister is working to see what kind of help the hospital can offer in this situation." Mateo has intravenous tubes coming out of her left wrist and alongside her right chest area. But the tubes and the treatments are not the source of her pain. "What I wouldn't give to be able to take these out and be healthy for my children," Mateo said, sobbing. "Please, just help me get better for my kids."
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